shock

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A violent collision or impact; a heavy blow. See Synonyms at collision.
2. n. The effect of such a collision or blow.
3. n. Something that jars the mind or emotions as if with a violent unexpected blow.
4. n. The disturbance of function, equilibrium, or mental faculties caused by such a blow; violent agitation.
5. n. A severe offense to one's sense of propriety or decency; an outrage.
6. n. A potentially fatal physiological reaction to a variety of conditions, including illness, injury, hemorrhage, and dehydration, usually characterized by marked loss of blood pressure, diminished blood circulation, and inadequate blood flow to the tissues.
7. n. The sensation and muscular spasm caused by an electric current passing through the body or a body part.
8. n. A sudden economic disturbance, such as a rise in the price of a commodity.
9. n. A shock absorber.
10. v. To strike with great surprise and emotional disturbance.
11. v. To strike with disgust; offend.
12. v. To induce a state of physical shock in (a person).
13. v. To subject (an animal or person) to an electric shock.
14. v. To come into contact violently, as in battle; collide.
15. n. A number of sheaves of grain stacked upright in a field for drying.
16. n. A thick heavy mass: a shock of white hair.
17. v. To gather (grain) into shocks.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A violent collision; a concussion; a violent striking or dashing together or against, as of bodies; specifically, in seismology, an earthquake-shock (see earthquake).
2. n. Any sudden and more or less violent physical or mental impression.
3. n. Specifically. In electricity a making or breaking of, or sudden variation in, an electric current, acting as a stimulant to sensory nerves or other irritable tissues.
4. n. A sudden attack of paralysis; a stroke.
5. n. A strong and sudden agitation of the mind or feelings; a startling surprise accompanied by grief, alarm, indignation, horror, relief, joy, or other strong emotion: as, a shock to the moral sense of a community.
6. n. Synonyms Shock, Collision, Concussion, Jolt. A shock is a violent shaking, and may be produced by a collision, a heavy jolt, or otherwise; it may be of the nature of a concussion. The word is more often used of the effect than of the action: as, the shock of battle, a shock of electricity, the shock from the sudden announcement of bad news. A collision is the dashing of a moving body upon a body moving or still: as, a railroad collision; collision of steamships. Concussion is a shaking together; hence the word is especially applicable where that which is shaken has, or may be thought of as having, parts: as, concussion of the air or of the brain. Collision implies the solidity of the colliding objects: as, the collision of two cannon-balls in the air. A jolt is a shaking by a single abrupt jerking motion upward or downward or both, as by a springless wagon on a rough road. Shock is used figuratively; we speak sometimes of the collision of ideas or of minds: concussion and jolt are only literal.
7. To strike against suddenly and violently; encounter with sudden collision or brunt; specifically, to encounter in battle: in this sense, archaic.
8. To strike as with indignation, horror, or disgust; cause to recoil, as from something astounding, appalling, hateful, or horrible; offend extremely; stagger; stun.
9. = Syn. 2. To appal, dismay, sicken, nauseate, scandalize, revolt, outrage, astound. See shock, n.
10. To collide with violence; meet in sudden onset or encounter.
11. To rush violently.
12. To butt, as rams.
13. n. In agriculture, a group of sheaves of grain placed standing in a field with the stalk-ends down, and so arranged as to shed the rain as completely as possible, in order to permit the grain to dry and ripen before housing. In England also called shook or stook.
14. n. A similar group of stalks of Indian corn or maize, not made up in sheaves, but placed singly, and bound together at the top in a conical form. Such shocks are usually made by gathering a number of cut stalks around a center of standing corn.
15. n. A unit of tale, sixty boxes or canes, by a statute of Charles II.
16. n. Synonyms and Stack, etc. See sheaf.
17. To make up into shocks or stooks: as, to shock corn.
18. To gather sheaves in piles or shocks.
19. n. A dog with long rough hair; a kind of shaggy dog.
20. n. A thick, disordered mass (of hair).
21. Shaggy.
22. A dialectal variant of shuck.
23. n. A mirror of the poorest quality, made of ordinary window-glass.

Wiktionary

1. n. Sudden, heavy impact.
2. n. Something so surprising that it is stunning.
3. n. More fully electric shock, a sudden burst of electric energy, hitting an animate animal such as a human.
4. n. A life-threatening medical emergency characterized by the inability of the circulatory system to supply enough oxygen to meet tissue requirements.
5. n. A tuft or bunch of something (e.g. hair, grass)
6. n. An arrangement of sheaves for drying. A stook.
7. n. A small dog with long shaggy hair, especially a poodle or spitz; a shaggy lapdog.
8. v. To cause to be emotionally shocked.
9. v. To give an electric shock.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. A pile or assemblage of sheaves of grain, as wheat, rye, or the like, set up in a field, the sheaves varying in number from twelve to sixteen; a stook.
2. n. A lot consisting of sixty pieces; -- a term applied in some Baltic ports to loose goods.
3. v. To collect, or make up, into a shock or shocks; to stook.
4. v. To be occupied with making shocks.
5. n. A quivering or shaking which is the effect of a blow, collision, or violent impulse; a blow, impact, or collision; a concussion; a sudden violent impulse or onset.
6. n. A sudden agitation of the mind or feelings; a sensation of pleasure or pain caused by something unexpected or overpowering; also, a sudden agitating or overpowering event.
7. n. A sudden depression of the vital forces of the entire body, or of a port of it, marking some profound impression produced upon the nervous system, as by severe injury, overpowering emotion, or the like.
8. n. The sudden convulsion or contraction of the muscles, with the feeling of a concussion, caused by the discharge, through the animal system, of electricity from a charged body.
9. v. To give a shock to; to cause to shake or waver; hence, to strike against suddenly; to encounter with violence.
10. v. To strike with surprise, terror, horror, or disgust; to cause to recoil.
11. v. To subject to the action of an electrical discharge so as to cause a more or less violent depression or commotion of the nervous system.
12. v. To meet with a shock; to meet in violent encounter.
13. n. A dog with long hair or shag; -- called also shockdog.
14. n. A thick mass of bushy hair.
15. adj. Bushy; shaggy.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. (pathology) bodily collapse or near collapse caused by inadequate oxygen delivery to the cells; characterized by reduced cardiac output and rapid heartbeat and circulatory insufficiency and pallor
2. n. a sudden jarring impact
3. n. the feeling of distress and disbelief that you have when something bad happens accidentally
4. n. a bushy thick mass (especially hair)
5. v. inflict a trauma upon
6. v. subject to electrical shocks
7. v. collide violently
8. v. strike with horror or terror
9. n. an instance of agitation of the earth's crust
10. n. a mechanical damper; absorbs energy of sudden impulses
11. v. collect or gather into shocks
12. n. an unpleasant or disappointing surprise
13. v. strike with disgust or revulsion
14. n. a pile of sheaves of grain set on end in a field to dry; stalks of Indian corn set up in a field
15. v. surprise greatly; knock someone's socks off
16. n. a reflex response to the passage of electric current through the body
17. n. the violent interaction of individuals or groups entering into combat