What does shock mean?

What does shock mean?. The world's largest and most trusted free online dictionary: definitions, synonyms, word origins, example sentences, word games, and more.

What does shock mean? - The Free Dictionary

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[n] the feeling of distress and disbelief that you have when something bad happens accidentally(his mother's death left him in a daze he was numb with shock)[v] surprise greatly; knock someone's socks off(I was floored when I heard that I was promoted)[n] the violent interaction of individ

shock

shock - The Free Dictionary

[n] the feeling of distress and disbelief that you have when something bad happens accidentally
(his mother's death left him in a daze he was numb with shock)

[v] surprise greatly; knock someone's socks off
(I was floored when I heard that I was promoted)

[n] the violent interaction of individuals or groups entering into combat
(the armies met in the shock of battle)

[v] strike with disgust or revulsion
(The scandalous behavior of this married woman shocked her friends)

[n] a reflex response to the passage of electric current through the body
(subjects received a small electric shock when they made the wrong response electricians get accustomed to occasional shocks)

[v] strike with horror or terror
(The news of the bombing shocked her)

[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
(loss of blood is an important cause of shock)

[v] collide violently

[n] an instance of agitation of the earth's crust
(the first shock of the earthquake came shortly after noon while workers were at lunch)

[v] collect or gather into shocks
(shock grain)

[n] an unpleasant or disappointing surprise
(it came as a shock to learn that he was injured)

[v] subject to electrical shocks

[n] a pile of sheaves of grain set on end in a field to dry; stalks of Indian corn set up in a field
(corn is bound in small sheaves and several sheaves are set up together in shocks whole fields of wheat in shock)

[v] inflict a trauma upon

[n] a bushy thick mass (especially hair)
(he had an unruly shock of black hair)

[n] a sudden jarring impact
(the door closed with a jolt all the jars and jolts were smoothed out by the shock absorbers)

[n] a mechanical damper; absorbs energy of sudden impulses
(the old car needed a new set of shocks)

Other vocabulary

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Dictionary

A dictionary is a listing of lexemes from the lexicon of one or more specific languages, often arranged alphabetically (or by consonantal root for Semitic languages or radical and stroke for ideographic languages), which may include information on definitions, usage, etymologies, pronunciations, translation, etc. It is a lexicographical reference that shows inter-relationships among the data.

A broad distinction is made between general and specialized dictionaries. Specialized dictionaries include words in specialist fields, rather than a complete range of words in the language. Lexical items that describe concepts in specific fields are usually called terms instead of words, although there is no consensus whether lexicology and terminology are two different fields of study. In theory, general dictionaries are supposed[citation needed] to be semasiological, mapping word to definition, while specialized dictionaries are supposed to be onomasiological, first identifying concepts and then establishing the terms used to designate them. In practice, the two approaches are used for both types. There are other types of dictionaries that do not fit neatly into the above distinction, for instance bilingual (translation) dictionaries, dictionaries of synonyms (thesauri), and rhyming dictionaries. The word dictionary (unqualified) is usually understood to refer to a general purpose monolingual dictionary.

There is also a contrast between prescriptive or descriptive dictionaries; the former reflect what is seen as correct use of the language while the latter reflect recorded actual use. Stylistic indications (e.g. "informal" or "vulgar") in many modern dictionaries are also considered by some to be less than objectively descriptive.

The first recorded dictionaries date back to Sumerian times around 2300 BCE, in the form of bilingual dictionaries, and the oldest surviving monolingual dictionaries are Chinese dictionaries c. 3rd century BCE. The first purely English alphabetical dictionary was A Table Alphabeticall, written in 1604, and monolingual dictionaries in other languages also began appearing in Europe at around this time. The systematic study of dictionaries as objects of scientific interest arose as a 20th-century enterprise, called lexicography, and largely initiated by Ladislav Zgusta. The birth of the new discipline was not without controversy, with the practical dictionary-makers being sometimes accused by others of having an "astonishing" lack of method and critical-self reflection.