/ʃɒk/, /ʃɔk/, /ʃɑk/
OriginFrom 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.
- countable, uncountableA sudden, heavy impact.
“The train hit the buffers with a great shock.”
- countable, figuratively, uncountableSomething so surprising that it is stunning.
- countable, uncountableA sudden or violent mental or emotional disturbance.
“A tremendous shock arises when a secret is discovered.”
- countable, uncountableElectric shock, a sudden burst of electrical energy hitting a person or animal.
“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.”
- countable, uncountableA 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.”
“". . . Maureen, I don't feel sad. I don't feel anything. What's wrong with me?"
"Nothing, Cae," she said. "You just haven't been able to take it in yet. Absorb the shock of it."”
- countable, uncountableCirculatory shock, a medical emergency characterized by the inability of the circulatory system to supply enough oxygen to meet tissue requirements.
- countable, uncountableA shock wave.
“Several reflected shocks enter the bomb core in rapid succession, each helping to compress it to its maximum density.”
- countable, uncountableA 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 clock”
“At the rear, you'll find a single, centrally mounted shock, the now-familiar single-sided swingarm and BMW's Paralever shaft-drive system, which does away with most of a shafty's chassis-jacking bugab”
- countable, uncountableA discontinuity arising in the solution of a partial differential equation.
- countable, uncountableA 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 ”
- An arrangement of sheaves for drying; a stook.
“Cause it on shocks to be by and by set.”
“Behind the Master walks, builds up the Shocks.”
- datedA lot consisting of sixty pieces; a term applied in some Baltic ports to loose goods.
- broadlyA 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.”
“On day three I pointed at the edge of an intricate pentagram peeking above her shock of oily black hair.”
- obsoleteA 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)”
- not-comparableCausing intense surprise, horror, etc.; unexpected and shocking.
“His shock announcement rocked the tennis world.”
- transitiveTo cause to be emotionally shocked; to cause (someone) to feel greatly surprised or upset.
“The disaster shocked the world.”
- transitiveTo strike with disgust, to offend, scandalize.
- transitiveTo give an electric shock to.
- transitiveTo subject to a shock wave or violent impact.
“Ammonium nitrate can detonate if severely shocked.”
- intransitive, obsoleteTo meet with a shock; to collide in a violent encounter.
“They saw the moment approach when the two parties would shock together.”
- transitiveTo add a chemical to (a swimming pool) to moderate the chlorine levels.
- transitiveTo 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).”
- transitiveTo collect, or make up, into a shock or shocks; to stook.
Formsshocks(plural) · choque(alternative, obsolete) · shocks(present, singular, third-person) · shocking(participle, present) · shocked(participle, past) · shocked(past) · Shocks(plural)