Sentence examples for once surprising from inspiring English sources

Senator Edward M. Kennedy frequently telephoned the leaders at home, once surprising the Senate president's daughter, who was convinced that Mr. Kennedy was an uncle playing a practical joke.

The Doge, alarmed by Norman control of the Strait of Otranto, took command of the Venetian fleet and sailed at once, surprising the Norman fleet under the command of Bohemond as night was falling.

In so many stories, Wham! comes the end, at once surprising and yet inevitable, resulting organically from the material of the story.

He was deliberate and courteous, even to opponents, once surprising Naomi Paiss, a gun control advocate about to debate him on television, by warmly congratulating her on her approaching wedding.

The children have a great time in the Warhol house, racing from floor to floor, hovering over Uncle Andy while he paints and once surprising him in bed before he gets his wig on.

Late on, after listening to a letter that says more about her husband secondhand than she has ever gleaned from him face to face, she delivers an almost unbearably moving response that is at once surprising and, in retrospect, makes perfect sense.

THE quick "not guilty" verdict reached Tuesday afternoon by a Brooklyn jury in the federal criminal trial of two former Bear Stearns hedge fund managers was at once surprising — for its failure to comport with the zeitgeist — but also entirely understandable, based on a close reading of the prosecution's arguments and the evidence the judge allowed to be introduced.

That is at once surprising and not surprising at all.