shock

plural shocks · alternative obsolete choque

1. countableA sudden, heavy impact.

   The train hit the buffers with a great shock.

   1. countablefigurativelySomething so surprising that it is stunning.

      My mother's news was a shock I still haven't recovered from.

      Synonyms: amazement, astonishment, awe, bewilderment, flabbergast, flabbergastation, flabbergastment, stupefaction

   2. countablehuman sciencesA sudden or violent emotional disturbance.

      Carl had a shock at what he found.

      1 more example

      A tremendous shock arises when a secret is discovered.

      2005, Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, David Kessler, On Grief and Grieving, →ISBN, page 85

   3. countableAn experience that leaves someone shaken; a very surprising, exhilarating or amazing experience.

      The surprising blast of cold water on my face was a tremendous shock.

   4. countablemedicineElectric shock, a sudden burst of electrical energy hitting a person or animal.

      We gave him a couple shocks, but the patient passed away anywway.

      1 more example

      But as was the case with pacemakers, external defibrillators were unwieldy, and the shocks they delivered—in the rare cases when patients were still conscious—were painful.

      2018, Sandeep Jauhar, Heart: a History, →ISBN, page 173

   5. countablemedicineThe stimulation of nerves and convulsive contraction of muscles caused by electrical current flowing through a body.
   6. uncountablehuman sciencesA state of distress following a mental or emotional disturbance, often caused by news or other stimuli.

      The shock she felt kept her in a daze the rest of the day.

      2 more examples

      Fans were in shock in the days following the singer's death.

      ". . . Maureen, I don't feel sad. I don't feel anything. What's wrong with me?" "Nothing, Cae," she said. "You just haven't been able to take it in yet. Absorb the shock of it."

      2008, Wally Lamb, The Hour I First Believed, Ch.5, at p.112

   7. uncountablemedicineCirculatory shock, a medical emergency characterized by the inability of the circulatory system to supply enough oxygen to meet tissue requirements.

      Call an ambulance, he's in shock!

   8. countablenatural sciencesA shock wave.

      Several reflected shocks enter the bomb core in rapid succession, each helping to compress it to its maximum density.

2. countablepluraluncountableusuallyautomotiveA shock absorber (typically in the suspension of a vehicle).

   If your truck's been riding rough, it might need new shocks.

   2 more examples

   We're bonin' on the dark blocks / Wearin' out the shocks, wettin' up the dashboard clock

   1993, “Back Seat (of My Jeep)”, in 14 Shots to the Dome, performed by LL Cool J

   At the rear, you'll find a single, centrally mounted shock, the now-familiar single-sided swingarm and BMW's Paralever shaft-drive system, which does away with most of a shafty's chassis-jacking bugaboos.

   1994, Cycle World Magazine, volume 33, number 1, page 49

3. countableuncountablemathematicsA discontinuity arising in the solution of a partial differential equation.
4. uncountableA chemical added to a swimming pool to moderate the chlorine levels.

   The warehouse that caught fire contained 99% trichloroisocyanuric acid (TCCA) – used to make chlorinated tablets to control bacteria and algae – and 99% dichloroisocyanuric acid (DCCA), which is used to make swimming pool shock – a treatment used to help break down contaminants.

   2024 November 24, Chris Boyette, “Investigators release update on BioLab chemical plant fire probe”, in CNN

alternative obsolete choque

1. not comparableCausing intense surprise, horror, etc.; unexpected and shocking.

   His shock announcement rocked the tennis world.

   Synonyms: shocking, surprising

present singular third person shocks · participle present shocking · participle past shocked · past shocked · alternative obsolete choque

1. transitiveTo cause to be emotionally shocked; to cause (someone) to feel greatly surprised or upset.

   The disaster shocked the world.

   Synonyms: shatter

2. transitiveTo strike with disgust, to offend, scandalize.
3. transitiveTo give an electric shock to.
4. transitiveTo subject to a shock wave or violent impact.

   Ammonium nitrate can detonate if severely shocked.

5. intransitiveobsoleteTo meet with a shock; to collide in a violent encounter.

   They saw the moment approach when the two parties would shock together.

   1832, Thomas De Quincey, Klosterheim Or, the Masque

6. transitivecookingTo cook something very briefly in a hot liquid, then immediately submerge it in ice water to stop the cooking process.

   Can you shock the spinach over there?

7. transitiveTo add a chemical to (a swimming pool) to moderate the chlorine levels.
8. transitivegeographyTo deform the crystal structure of a stone by the application of extremely high pressure at moderate temperature, as produced only by hypervelocity impact events, lightning strikes, and nuclear explosions.

   It takes more than two gigapascals (two billion pascals) of pressure to shock quartz in this manner (for comparison, the atmosphere at sea level exerts a little over 100,000 pascals of pressure).

   2018, Tim Flannery, Europe: A Natural History, page 44

plural shocks · alternative obsolete choque

1. An arrangement of sheaves for drying; a stook.

   Cause it on shocks to be by and by set.

   1557, Thomas Tusser, Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry

   1 more example

   Behind the Master walks, builds up the Shocks.

   a. 1749 (date written), James Thomson, “Autumn”, in The Seasons, London: […] A[ndrew] Millar, and sold by Thomas Cadell, […], published 1768, →OCLC

2. datedbusinessA lot consisting of sixty pieces; a term applied in some Baltic ports to loose goods.
3. broadlyA tuft or bunch of something, such as hair or grass.

   His head boasted a shock of sandy hair.

   2 more examples

   Every now and then I’m startled at how good-looking John is, but he glared at me from under the shock of hair that fell across his brow and scared me a little.

   1968 October 12, Paul Zindel, chapter 12, in The Pigman

   On day three I pointed at the edge of an intricate pentagram peeking above her shock of oily black hair.

   2019, Hal Y. Zhang, Hard Mother, Spider Mother, Soft Mother, Brooklyn, NY: Radix Media, →ISBN, page 2

   Synonyms: mop

4. obsoleteA small dog with long shaggy hair, especially a poodle or spitz; a shaggy lapdog.

   When I read of witty persons, I could not figure them but like the little shock. (translating the German Spitz)

   1827, Thomas Carlyle, The Fair-Haired Eckbert

present singular third person shocks · participle present shocking · participle past shocked · past shocked · alternative obsolete choque

1. transitiveTo collect, or make up, into a shock or shocks; to stook.

   to shock rye

plural Shocks

1. A surname.