throw a curve

Idioms and Phrases

Surprise or outwit someone, as in They threw me a curve when they said that our department would be combined with yours . This colloquial term comes from baseball, where a pitcher tries to fool the batter by using a curve ball , which is thrown with sufficient spin to make it veer from its expected path. The term was transferred to other kinds of surprise, not necessarily unpleasant, in the mid-1900s.

Related Words

• agitate
• anger
• astound
• awe
• disgust
• dismay
• displease
• disturb
• flabbergast
• horrify
• insult
• jar
• jolt
• offend
• outrage
• overwhelm
• paralyze
• rock
• shake
• shake up