sticker shock
sticker shock noun: disgust, shock, or fright upon learning the price of an item offered for sale.
Noun
sticker shock (usually uncountable, plural sticker shocks)
- Disgust, shock, or fright upon learning the price of an item offered for sale.
- Last week Jensen returned to his dealer's showroom to eye the new Continental, but he quickly became another victim of what Detroit calls "sticker shock." The price on the car's window: $25,692. Says he: "Damn, that is expensive! It persuaded me to keep driving my '80 until it won't go any more."1981 November 9, P. Witteman, K. Pierce, “Going from Bad to Even Worse”, in Time
- Now the 1997 model year brings a slew of new and redesigned models that tackle sticker shock head-on.1996 Dec, Ed Henry, Taking on Sticker Shock, Kiplinger's Personal Finance
Forms of sticker shock
| plural | sticker shocks |
|---|
Origin of sticker shock
Coined c. 1981, in reference to price stickers affixed to items for sale.
Words formed from sticker shock
Questions about sticker shock
- What does sticker shock mean?
- Sticker shock means disgust, shock, or fright upon learning the price of an item offered for sale.
- What part of speech is sticker shock?
- Sticker shock is a noun.
- What is the plural of sticker shock?
- The plural of sticker shock is sticker shocks.
Words near sticker shock in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: sticker 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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-sticker shock.ogg.
Cite this entry: “sticker shock.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sticker_shock. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.