spring a surprise

idiom

: to do, ask, or say something that is not expected

Everyone knows she's not likely to spring a surprise.

The teacher sprang a surprise on us and gave a quiz.

Examples of spring a surprise in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The Norwegian academy informs Abel Prize recipients with ruses similar to those used to spring a surprise birthday party on an unsuspecting person. —Kenneth Chang, New York Times, 26 Mar. 2025

And yet the ‘free hit’ mentality may well be just what the country needs to spring a surprise. —Aleks Klosok, CNN, 11 June 2024

Now, Foals can spring a surprise of their own by beating Drake to the U.K. chart title. —Lars Brandle, Billboard, 21 June 2022

Even at 96, the Queen can still spring a surprise. —Max Foster and Rob Picheta, CNN, 10 June 2022

Can the upstart Memphis Grizzlies spring a surprise? —USA TODAY, 16 Apr. 2022

Political observers had long suspected Duterte could spring a surprise, such as a presidential run by his daughter, Sara Duterte-Carpio, next year. —NBC News, 2 Oct. 2021

Evans started the meet by spring a surprise victory in the girls 4x800 relay. —Buddy Collings, orlandosentinel.com, 8 May 2021

Rhymes for spring a surprise

• actualize
• antagonize
• apologise
• apologize
• capitalize
• categorize
• characterize
• commercialize
• conceptualize
• contrariwise
• criminalize
• decentralize