Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use shock in a sentence

40 example sentences · noun, adjective, verb

Shock means a sudden, heavy impact. Example: “The train hit the buffers with a great shock.”

Examples of shock by meaning

nounA sudden, heavy impact.

  • The train hit the buffers with a great shock.

nounSomething so surprising that it is stunning.

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

nounA sudden or violent emotional disturbance.

  • Carl had a shock at what he found.
  • A tremendous shock arises when a secret is discovered.2005, Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, David Kessler, On Grief and Grieving, →ISBN, page 85

nounAn 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.

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

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

nounA state of distress following a mental or emotional disturbance, often caused by news or other stimuli.

  • Fans were in shock in the days following the singer's death.
  • The shock she felt kept her in a daze the rest of the day.

nounCirculatory shock, a medical emergency characterized by the inability of the circulatory system to supply enough oxygen...

  • Call an ambulance, he's in shock!

nounA shock wave.

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

More sentences with shock

  • It was a complete shock when he turned up on my doorstep.From the entry complete
  • When I first heard the news, I was numbed by the shock.From the entry numb
  • This stupid carpet is always giving me a shock from the static.From the entry static
  • I used an extract of Hemingway's book to demonstrate culture shock.From the entry extract
  • The electric shock elicited an automatic and reflexive response from him.From the entry reflexive
  • Having grown up in rural Arkansas, I experienced tremendous culture shock on moving to Harlem.From the entry culture shock
  • The patient was in shock and had a dusky skin tone.From the entry dusky
  • The shock of my friend's decapitation affected me viscerally, and I became paralyzed with dread.From the entry viscerally
  • The newer taser delivered a more powerful electric shock to the target than the older one did.From the entry electric shock
  • The nonexistence of Father Christmas and the Tooth Fairy came as something of a shock.From the entry nonexistence
  • If you unground the extension cord it will cause a shock hazard in that drill.From the entry unground
  • They applied a conductant to his scalp in preparation for the electric shock treatment.From the entry conductant
  • The fence gave me an electric shock.From the entry give
  • Anybody touching this wire will get a deadly shock.From the entry -ing
  • Asphyxia may result from choking, drowning, electric shock, or injury.From the entry asphyxia
  • The shock left him in a stupor of disbelief.From the entry stupor
  • The discovery of extraterrestrial intelligence would trigger widespread ontological shock.From the entry ontological shock
  • The shock led to a change in his behaviour.From the entry lead to
  • The news came as a shock.From the entry come
  • The shock left his memory blank.From the entry blank
  • Across Ukraine, the initial shock over the confrontation, which culminated in President Donald Trump summarily dismissing Mr.2025 March 3, Howard LaFranchi, “Ukrainians flock to Zelenskyy’s banner, but hope for solution with US”, in The Christian Science Monitor. From the entry mendicant
  • This is called the cold shock response, and it means that the first few minutes are critical.2025 October 21, Rose George, “‘I knew in my head we were dying’: the last voyage of the Scandies Rose”, in The Guardian. From the entry cold shock response
  • Many of the J6ers had never been incarcerated before, and jail came as a shock.2024 September 16, Hanna Rosin, “The Insurrectionists Next Door”, in The Atlantic, →ISSN. From the entry J6er
  • Basically, nothing our Renaissance cousins did in the name of beauty would shock anyone on TikTok.2024 January 2, Marisa Meltzer, “Book Review: 'How to Be a Renaissance Woman,' by Jill Burke”, in The New York Times Book Review, New…. From the entry cryofacial
  • That is why many of us are now suffering sticker shock when we eat out.2023 June 10, Tim Hayward, “The pie’s the limit”, in FT Weekend (Life & Arts section), London: The Financial Times Ltd., →ISSN, →OCLC…. From the entry sticker shock
  • Narita leans into his Ivy League pedigree as he fosters a nerdy shock jock impression.2023 February 12, Motoko Rich, Hikari Hida, “A Yale Professor Suggested Mass Suicide for Old People in Japan. What Did He Mean?”, in The…. From the entry shock jock
  • Several telegraph operators received electric shocks and some telegraph stations even caught fire.2023 November 15, Prof. Jim Wild, “This train was delayed because of bad weather in space”, in RAIL, number 996, page 30. From the entry catch fire
  • “We always had shock jocks,” said Michael Harrison, publisher of the talk-radio trade magazine Talkers.2021 February 10, Michael M. Grynbaum, Tiffany Hsu, Katie Robertson, Keith Collins, quoting Michael Harrison, “How Right-Wing Radio Stoked…. From the entry shock jock
  • One answer comes from the fact that it takes a great deal of force to shock quartz.2018, Tim Flannery, Europe: A Natural History, page 44. From the entry shockable

Meaning of shock

  1. noun A sudden, heavy impact.
  2. noun Something so surprising that it is stunning.
  3. noun A sudden or violent emotional disturbance.

Full definition of shock

Questions about shock in a sentence

How do you use shock in a sentence?
Shock is used as a noun, adjective and verb. For example: “The train hit the buffers with a great shock.”
What is a short sentence with shock?
“Call an ambulance, he's in shock!”
What does shock mean?
Shock means a sudden, heavy impact.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: shock (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use shock in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/shock. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.