Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A violent collision or impact; a heavy blow. See Synonyms at collision.
- n. The effect of such a collision or blow.
- n. Something that jars the mind or emotions as if with a violent unexpected blow.
- n. The disturbance of function, equilibrium, or mental faculties caused by such a blow; violent agitation.
- n. A severe offense to one's sense of propriety or decency; an outrage.
- 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.
- n. The sensation and muscular spasm caused by an electric current passing through the body or a body part.
- n. A sudden economic disturbance, such as a rise in the price of a commodity.
- n. A shock absorber.
- v. To strike with great surprise and emotional disturbance.
- v. To strike with disgust; offend.
- v. To induce a state of physical shock in (a person).
- v. To subject (an animal or person) to an electric shock.
- v. To come into contact violently, as in battle; collide.
- n. A number of sheaves of grain stacked upright in a field for drying.
- n. A thick heavy mass: a shock of white hair.
- v. To gather (grain) into shocks.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- 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).
- n. Any sudden and more or less violent physical or mental impression.
- 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.
- n. A sudden attack of paralysis; a stroke.
- 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.
- 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.
- To strike against suddenly and violently; encounter with sudden collision or brunt; specifically, to encounter in battle: in this sense, archaic.
- To strike as with indignation, horror, or disgust; cause to recoil, as from something astounding, appalling, hateful, or horrible; offend extremely; stagger; stun.
- = Syn. 2. To appal, dismay, sicken, nauseate, scandalize, revolt, outrage, astound. See shock, n.
- To collide with violence; meet in sudden onset or encounter.
- To rush violently.
- To butt, as rams.
- 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.
- 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.
- n. A unit of tale, sixty boxes or canes, by a statute of Charles II.
- n. Synonyms and Stack, etc. See sheaf.
- To make up into shocks or stooks: as, to shock corn.
- To gather sheaves in piles or shocks.
- n. A dog with long rough hair; a kind of shaggy dog.
- n. A thick, disordered mass (of hair).
- Shaggy.
- A dialectal variant of shuck.
- n. A mirror of the poorest quality, made of ordinary window-glass.
Wiktionary
- n. Sudden, heavy impact.
- n. mathematics A discontinuity arising in the solution of a partial differential equation.
- v. To cause to be emotionally shocked.
- v. To give an electric shock.
- n. An arrangement of sheaves for drying, a stook.
- n. by extension A tuft or bunch of something (e.g. hair, grass)
- n. obsolete A small dog with long shaggy hair, especially a poodle or spitz; a shaggy lapdog.
GNU Webster's 1913
- 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.
- n. (Com.) A lot consisting of sixty pieces; -- a term applied in some Baltic ports to loose goods.
- v. To collect, or make up, into a shock or shocks; to stook.
- v. To be occupied with making shocks.
- 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.
- 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.
- n. (Med.) 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.
- n. (Elec.) 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.
- v. To give a shock to; to cause to shake or waver; hence, to strike against suddenly; to encounter with violence.
- v. To strike with surprise, terror, horror, or disgust; to cause to recoil.
- v. (Physiol.) 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.
- v. To meet with a shock; to meet in violent encounter.
- n. (Zoöl.) A dog with long hair or shag; -- called also
shockdog . - n. A thick mass of bushy hair.
- adj. Bushy; shaggy.
WordNet 3.0
- 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
- n. a sudden jarring impact
- n. the feeling of distress and disbelief that you have when something bad happens accidentally
- n. a bushy thick mass (especially hair)
- v. inflict a trauma upon
- v. subject to electrical shocks
- v. collide violently
- v. strike with horror or terror
- n. an instance of agitation of the earth's crust
- n. a mechanical damper; absorbs energy of sudden impulses
- v. collect or gather into shocks
- n. an unpleasant or disappointing surprise
- v. strike with disgust or revulsion
- n. a pile of sheaves of grain set on end in a field to dry; stalks of Indian corn set up in a field
- v. surprise greatly; knock someone's socks off
- n. a reflex response to the passage of electric current through the body
- n. the violent interaction of individuals or groups entering into combat
Etymologies
- From Middle Dutch schokken ("to push, jolt, shake, jerk") or Middle French choquer ("to collide with, clash"); both from Middle Dutch schokken ("to jolt, bounce"), from Old Dutch *skokkan ("to shake up and down, shog"), from Proto-Germanic *skukkanan (“to move, shake, tremble”). Of uncertain origin. Perhaps related to Proto-Germanic *skakanan (“to shake, stir”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kAg'-, *(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 (German schaukeln, "to swing"), Old Norse skykkr ("vibration, surging motion"), Icelandic skykkjun ("tremuously"), Middle English schiggen ("to shake"). More at shog. (Wiktionary)
- French choc, from choquer, to collide with, from Old French chuquier, perhaps of Germanic origin.Middle English shok. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“They then tried to examine him under torture by electric shock& amp; mdash; but Galt was prepared for it, and knew in advance that they would not dare deliver to him a lethal shock.”
“A man on talk radio at 4 a.m. who apologised, without undue theatre, for having simply walked away in shock from the bus blast rather than offering comfort to the wounded.”
“The term shock doctrine may be appropriate but the real reason for the economic problems the US has today is a direct result of giving American corporations all the rights of an American individual but not all of the responsibilities.”
China Buys Hummer Brand-- Further Evidence of a Shock Doctrine Assaulted America?
“The shot of the girl standing in shock is one of the most disturbing scenes you'll witness, it's not something you'd expect to happen in a typical film and it's indicative of scenes to come.”
“If you wanted to separate the freezing in shock from the utterance for some reason (I can't think of one right now, but you never know), then example two would work, in context.”
“HARRIS (voice over): And his book, don't let the title shock you, "The Mystery Method: How to Get Beautiful Women into Bed.”
“HARRIS: And his book, don't let the title shock you, "The Mystery Method: How to Get Beautiful Women into Bed.”
“And I think the term shock and awe does indeed apply to this defense case.”
“The Editor's memory matches mine with regard to the use of the fabric-covered elastic for yachting and the use of the term shock cord.”
“It would be a huge stimulative short term shock to income and inflation if the banks flooded the economy with their huge excess reserves and the Fed did not reduce the bulging monetary base it has created.”
The Huffington Post: Robert Auerbach: Does the Stimulus Stimulate?
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘shock’.
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EN-HU - important words for a HU inte...
Words only (I left out the expressions) from Geza Kerenyi's EN-HU interpreters' dictionary. Most of them pose some difficulty when interpreted between HU and EN in either or both directions.
abalone, abrasive, abstractionist, abstruse, abysmal, academia, accessibility, accessible, acclimate, accolade, accompanist, achiever and 1469 more...
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Mountain Biking
Words that relate to bicycling or mountain biking
crank, podium, attack position, bonk, rock garden, babyheads, bunny hop, chain, chainring, clipless, freeride, slicks and 205 more...
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Down on the Farm
All things farm and agriculture related.
barn, tractor, cow, hay, horse, pig, corn, plough, irrigation, subsidies, crops, plant and 260 more...
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It's Electric!
I get a charge out of these words.
galvanometer, acierage, actino-electricity, agometer, amperage, ampere, antilogous, cataphoric, ceraunics, coulomb, cymaphen, deflagrator and 40 more...
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Hey Hey It's My Monkey!
I don't have a monkey. But if I did, he/she would be named ...
hanuman, shock, 500, rhesus, wrench, spank, puzzle, davy jones, funky, grip, swinger, chunky and 33 more...
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Lifehacking
Start with the effect, the what; signal-patch known-belief spirit. "Write my program, routine me." New cue vs brand loyalty. Ritual Ceremony Design Technologies, Inc.
confusion, misdirection, fractionation, disequilibrium, relaxation, repetition, impassioned, intensity, suddenly, shock, concentration, focus and 118 more...
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The Devil and His Imps
Names of 'the Devil himself, the devils his "flaming ministers", household goblins, rural demons, bogles, sprites, and fairies of all kinds' mentioned in Charles P.G. Scott's 'The Devil and His Imp...
devil, devilet, deviling, dablet, black angel, black man, black bear, black bull, black dog, bogle, bogie, boggard and 128 more...
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eggplantia5's Words
scintillate, marvel, cranberry, oscillate, triumph, bamboozle, grimace, magical, book, hexagon, cipher, compendium and 2727 more...
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jagosaurus's favorites
Words I like mostly because of the way they sound and feel.
ticonderoga, petulance, snark, estimable, chickahominy, feline, gezellig, gneiss, shit, willy-nilly, shelter, coda and 366 more...
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Basic English Vocabulary
Very basic words for ESL students.
a, abandon, ability, able, abortion, about, above, abroad, absence, absolute, absolutely, absorb and 4334 more...
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Gotim
Aries, fire, chaos, destruction, Mars, aggression, bold, competetive, conflict, raw, black, red and 165 more...
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Major Team Spirit
Teams of the Major Leagues in the United States.
celtics, nets, knicks, raptors, bulls, 76ers, cavaliers, pistons, pacers, bucks, hawks, bobcats and 126 more...
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Next!
salvific, redemptive, salvic, roil, changeling, barrow, burro, sow, swath, haymow, shock, sheaves and 190 more...
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_mark's list
Words I like!
( personal list, favorite words, randomness )psy, nanobot, success, smack, vibration, microcosmic, springgraph, marksmanship, estranged, homoerotic, flex, fiasco and 1696 more...
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the hotlist
short, sweet, epic, catchy, sassy, sexy & sizzling.
( personal list, randomness )
more:
http://www.wordnik.com/lists/...zing, epic, win, fail, hot, warp, times, clip, onyx, wonky, pwn, leet and 1493 more...
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Moods
apathy, cuntificate, quixotic, noxious, fetid, malodorous, trepidation, expectancy, contempt, disgust, terror, fear and 149 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for shock.

oroboros Slumry: See ant dance. ;oP Jul 18, 2007
slumry Nah, shocking hay is best done in a field, lest you shock the householder by error.
Actually, you remind me of the times my brother and I dared each other to touch an electric fence with a piece of dry grass. Fortunately, it delivered a very mild shock.
And I won't even mention the prank that little country boys sometimes played on their city cousins! Jul 18, 2007
uselessness Especially if doing so on carpet in wool socks. Jul 18, 2007
slumry transitive verb: to gather hay into shocks or sheaves. Jul 18, 2007