Word.ws English Dictionary

short sharp shock

short sharp shock noun: a regime intended to deter crime by making an immediate severe impact.

Noun

short sharp shock (plural short sharp shocks)

  1. (UK) A regime intended to deter crime by making an immediate severe impact.
    • While COVID-19 has provided a short, sharp shock to the industry, the end hopefully appears to be in sight.2020 December 2, Mark Phillips, “Rebuilding Rail in the 2020s”, in Rail, page 47

Forms of short sharp shock

pluralshort sharp shocks

Origin of short sharp shock

Coined by W. S. Gilbert in the song "I Am So Proud" from The Mikado, referring euphemistically to a beheading.

Questions about short sharp shock

What does short sharp shock mean?
Short sharp shock means a regime intended to deter crime by making an immediate severe impact.
What part of speech is short sharp shock?
Short sharp shock is a noun.
What is the plural of short sharp shock?
The plural of short sharp shock is short sharp shocks.

Words near short sharp shock in the dictionary

  1. short seas
  2. short sell
  3. short seller
  4. short sellers
  5. short selling
  6. short sharp shock
  7. short sharp shocks
  8. short sheet
  9. short sheeted
  10. short sheeting
  11. short sheets

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: short sharp shock (page history and authors). 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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