Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner's English Dictionary - shock

(shocks, shocking, shocked) Frequency: The word is one of the 1500 most common words in English. 1. If you have a shock, something suddenly happens which is unpleasant, upsetting, or very surprising. The extent of the violence came as a shock... He has never recovered from the shock of your brother’s death... N-COUNT 2. Shock is a person’s emotional and physical condition when something very frightening or upsetting has happened to them. She’s still in a state of shock. N-UNCOUNT 3. If someone is in shock, they are suffering from a serious physical condition in which their blood is not flowing round their body properly, for example because they have had a bad injury. They escaped the blaze but were rushed to hospital suffering from shock. N-UNCOUNT: oft in N 4. If something shocks you, it makes you feel very upset, because it involves death or suffering and because you had not expected it. After forty years in the police force nothing much shocks me... VERB: V n • shocked This was a nasty attack and the woman is still very shocked. ADJ 5. If someone or something shocks you, it upsets or offends you because you think it is rude or morally wrong. You can’t shock me... They were easily shocked in those days... We were always trying to be creative and to shock. VERB: V n, be V-ed, V • shocked Don’t look so shocked. ADJ 6. A shock announcement or event is one which shocks people because it is unexpected. (JOURNALISM) ...the shock announcement that she is to resign. ...a shock defeat. ADJ: ADJ n 7. A shock is the force of something suddenly hitting or pulling something else. Steel barriers can bend and absorb the shock. N-VAR 8. A shock is the same as an electric shock. N-COUNT 9. A shock of hair is a very thick mass of hair on a person’s head. (WRITTEN) ...a very old priest with a shock of white hair. N-COUNT: N of n 10. see also shocking, culture shock, electric shock, shell shock