Word.ws English Dictionary

shock

UK/ʃɒk//ʃɔk/

shock noun: a sudden, heavy impact.

Noun (1)

shock (countable and uncountable, plural shocks)

  1. (countable) A sudden, heavy impact.
    • The train hit the buffers with a great shock.
    1. (countable, figuratively) Something so surprising that it is stunning.
      • My mother's news was a shock I still haven't recovered from.
    2. (countable) A 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
    3. (countable) An 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. (countable) Electric 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
    5. (countable) The stimulation of nerves and convulsive contraction of muscles caused by electrical current flowing through a body.
    6. (uncountable) A 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.
    7. (uncountable) Circulatory 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. (countable) A shock wave.
      • Several reflected shocks enter the bomb core in rapid succession, each helping to compress it to its maximum density.
  2. (plural, usually) A shock absorber (typically in the suspension of a vehicle).
    • If your truck's been riding rough, it might need new shocks.
    • We're bonin' on the dark blocks / Wearin' out the shocks, wettin' up the dashboard clock1993, “Back Seat (of My Jeep)”, in 14 Shots to the Dome, performed by LL Cool J
  3. A discontinuity arising in the solution of a partial differential equation.
  4. (uncountable) A 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

Adjective

shock (not comparable)

  1. Causing intense surprise, horror, etc.; unexpected and shocking.
    • His shock announcement rocked the tennis world.
    Synonyms:
    shocking, surprising

Verb (1)

shock (third-person singular simple present shocks, present participle shocking, simple past and past participle shocked)

  1. (transitive) To cause to be emotionally shocked; to cause (someone) to feel greatly surprised or upset.
    • The disaster shocked the world.
    Synonyms:
    shatter
  2. (transitive) To strike with disgust, to offend, scandalize.
  3. (transitive) To give an electric shock to.
  4. (transitive) To subject to a shock wave or violent impact.
    • Ammonium nitrate can detonate if severely shocked.
  5. (intransitive, obsolete) To 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. (transitive) To 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. (transitive) To add a chemical to (a swimming pool) to moderate the chlorine levels.
  8. (transitive) To 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

Noun (2)

shock (plural shocks)

  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
    • 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. (dated) A lot consisting of sixty pieces; a term applied in some Baltic ports to loose goods.
  3. (broadly) A tuft or bunch of something, such as hair or grass.
    • His head boasted a shock of sandy hair.
    • 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
    Synonyms:
    mop
  4. (obsolete) A 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

Verb (2)

shock (third-person singular simple present shocks, present participle shocking, simple past and past participle shocked)

  1. (transitive) To collect, or make up, into a shock or shocks; to stook.
    • to shock rye

Proper noun capitalized: Shock

Shock (plural Shocks)

  1. A surname.

shock meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

shock in Hindi

sudden, heavy impact
झटका jhaṭkā

shock in Tamil

அதிர்ச்சி

shock in Marathi

धक्का, धक्काबुक्की

shock in Urdu

shock, jerk, sudden stroke, jolt, shake
جھٹکا jhaṭkā
shock
دھکا dhakkā, چپیٹ capeṭ
More languagesFewer languages
shock in Bengali
সদমা śodoma
shock in Telugu
షాక్
shock in Malayalam
ഞടുക്കം ñaṭukkaṁ, ഞെടുക്കം ñeṭukkaṁ
shock in Kannada
ತೆನೆಗಳ ರಾಶಿ, ಕಂತೆಯೊಟ್ಟಲು, ಹುಲ್ಲು ಹೊರೆಗಳ ಬಣವೆ, ಸೂಡಿ
shock in Punjabi
جھٹکا jhaṭkā, دھکا dhakkā, ਹੈਰਤ hairat, ਧੱਕਾ dhakkā
shock in Gujarati
આંચકો ā̃cako
shock in Odia
ଝଟକା
shock in Sanskrit
तुञ्ज tuñjá
shock in Nepali
सदमा
shock in Arabic
صَدْمَة ṣadma, صَعْقَة ṣaʕqa, صَعَقَ ṣaʕaqa
shock in Indonesian
syok, kejutan, renjatan
shock in Vietnamese
choáng, ngạc nhiên, bất ngờ, gây choáng

Examples of shock in a sentence

  • It was a complete shock when he turned up on my doorstep.
  • When I first heard the news, I was numbed by the shock.
  • This stupid carpet is always giving me a shock from the static.

All 40 example sentences with shock

Synonyms of shock

3 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of shock

Forms of shock

Noun
pluralshocks
alternative form (obsolete)choque
Verb
third-person singular presentshocks
present participleshocking
past participleshocked
pastshocked
Proper noun
pluralShocks

Past tense of shock: shocked

Plural of shock: shocks

Origin of shock

From Middle Dutch schokken (“to push, jolt, shake, jerk”) or Middle French choquer (“to collide with, clash”), from Old Dutch *skokkan (“to shake up and down, shog”), from Proto-Germanic *skukkaną (“to move, shake, tremble”). Of uncertain origin. Perhaps related to Proto-Germanic *skakaną (“to shake, stir”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kek-, *(s)keg- (“to shake, stir”); see shake. Cognate with Middle Low German schocken (“collide with, deliver a blow to, move back and forth”), Old High German scoc (“a jolt, swing”), Middle High German schocken (“to swing”) (German schaukeln), Old Norse skykkr (“vibration, surging motion”), Icelandic skykkjun (“tremulously”), Middle English schiggen (“to shake”). Doublet of shog.

Inherited from Middle English schok, from Old English *sċoc or Middle Low German schok; in any case, from Proto-West Germanic *skok and possibly related to Latvian kàudze and Lithuanian kiūgis.

* As an English surname, variant of Shuck. * As a German surname, Americanized from Schock, itself a variant of Scheck, or from the sense Schock (“heap”). Compare Schoch.

Words formed from shock

Phrases with shock

31 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with shock

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about shock

What does shock mean?
Shock means a sudden, heavy impact.
What is shock in Hindi?
Shock in Hindi is झटका (jhaṭkā). See Shock meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is shock?
Shock can be a noun, an adjective, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce shock?
Shock is pronounced /ʃɒk/ (UK).
What is the plural of shock?
The plural of shock is shocks.

Words near shock in the dictionary

  1. shochets
  2. shochikubai
  3. shochtim
  4. shochu
  5. shochus
  6. shock
  7. shock absorber
  8. shock absorbers
  9. shock absorption
  10. shock and awe
  11. shock collar

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: shock (page history and authors); Shock (page history and authors); shock (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); shock (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); جھٹکا (Urdu) (page history and authors); shock (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); ഞടുക്കം (Malayalam) (page history and authors); shock (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); جھٹکا (Punjabi) (page history and authors); આંચકો (Gujarati) (page history and authors); shock (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); तुञ्ज (Sanskrit) (page history and authors); shock (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-shock.ogg.

Cite this entry: “shock.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/shock. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.