unawares

unexpectedly, without forethought, by surprise: Her anger caught him unawares.

Not to be confused with:

unaware – not aware or cognizant: He was unaware of the danger lurking.

un·a·wares

(ŭn′ə-wârz′)

adv.

1. By surprise; unexpectedly: "Sorrow comes to all; and to the young, it comes with bitterest agony, because it takes them unawares" (Abraham Lincoln).

2. Without forethought or plan: discovered that he had unawares given offense. See Usage Note at unaware.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

unawares

(ˌʌnəˈwɛəz)

adv

1. without prior warning or plan; unexpectedly: she caught him unawares.

2. without being aware of or knowing: he lost it unawares.

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

un•a•wares

(ˌʌn əˈwɛərz)

adv.

1. unknowingly or inadvertently.

2. without warning; unexpectedly: to find someone unawares.

[1525–35]

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Adv.	1.	unawares - without forethought or plan; inadvertently; "came upon the diamond unawares"
	2.	unawares - suddenly and unexpectedly; "rain caught them unawares"; "sorrow comes to all, and to the young it comes with bittered agony because it takes them unawares"- A.Lincoln
	3.	unawares - at a disadvantage; "I was caught short" short

unawares

adverb

1. by surprise, unprepared, off guard, suddenly, unexpectedly, abruptly, aback, without warning, on the hop (Brit. informal), caught napping The suspect was taken unawares.
by surprise prepared, on the lookout, forewarned

2. unknowingly, unwittingly, unconsciously They were entertaining an angel unawares.
unknowingly knowingly, wittingly

Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

unawares

adverb

Without adequate preparation:

aback, short, unawarely.

Idiom: by surprise.

Translations

di sorpresa

врасплох

unawares

[ˈʌnəˈwɛəz] ADV → sin saberlo, sin darse cuenta
to catch or take sb unawares → pillar a algn desprevenido

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

unawares

[ˌʌnəˈwɛə^rz] adv → au dépourvu
to catch sb unawares, to take sb unawares → prendre qn au dépourvu

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

unawares

adv (= by surprise) → unerwartet; (= accidentally) → unbeabsichtigt, versehentlich; (= without knowing) → unwissentlich; to catch or take somebody unawares → jdn überraschen

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

unawares

[ˌʌnəˈwɛəz] adv to catch or take sb unawares → prendere qn alla sprovvista

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

Men discover themselves in trust, in passion, at unawares, and of necessity, when they would have somewhat done, and cannot find an apt pretext.

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Doubtless the good man has spent many a studious hour in this old chair, either penning a sermon or reading some abstruse book of theology, till midnight came upon him unawares. At that period, as there were few lamps or candles to be had, people used to read or work by the light of pitch.

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that while I purposed to hunt another, I am myself fallen unawares into the snares of death."

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Captain Jones - let us call him Jones - had been caught unawares. Two orders he had given at the first sign of an utterly unforeseen onset; after that the magnitude of his mistake seemed to have overwhelmed him.

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Those were slow, silent, often turbid; flowing over beds of mud into which the incautious wader might sink and vanish unawares. The Froom waters were clear as the pure River of Life shown to the Evangelist, rapid as the shadow of a cloud, with pebbly shallows that prattled to the sky all day long.

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"You are not taking me unawares, you know," said he.

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"I'll tell you what, Wrench, this is beyond a joke," said the Mayor, who of late had had to rebuke offenders with an official air, and how broadened himself by putting his thumbs in his armholes.-- "To let fever get unawares into a house like this.

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Fourth: Stealing unawares upon the whale in the fancied security of the middle of solitary seas, you find him unbent from the vast corpulence of his dignity, and kitten-like, he plays on the ocean as if it were a hearth.

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In the spiritual world, the old physician and the minister -- mutual victims as they have been -- may, unawares, have found their earthly stock of hatred and antipathy transmuted into golden love.

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And he had been indeed caught unawares, and at the first moment when she spoke to him of her position, his heart had prompted him to beg her to leave her husband.

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The attack was so unprovoked that Stroeve, taken unawares, was defenceless.

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Michael Vanstone unawares with the legitimate weapons of her sex.

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