shocking

1. 1
   adjective

   Causing a strong reaction of surprise, horror, or distress; startling in an upsetting way.

   Witnesses described the crash as shocking, saying it happened without any warning.

   The report contained shocking revelations about the company's finances.

   Similarstartling, appalling, horrifying, disturbing, staggering

   Oppositeunsurprising

2. 2
   adjective

   Obscene or lewd to an unusual degree, offending ordinary standards of decency.

   The magazine was banned for its shocking photographs of nude models.

   Censors cut the play's shocking bedroom scene before opening night.

   Similarobscene, lewd, indecent, scandalous

   Oppositedecent, tame

3. 3
   adjectivecolloquial

   Extremely bad in quality, condition, or behavior.

   Traffic on the interstate was shocking this morning, and I missed my meeting.

   Their customer service has been shocking ever since the merger.

   Similarterrible, awful, dreadful, appalling, atrocious

   Oppositeexcellent, great, superb

   Note

   Here the word has stopped signaling surprise and simply turns up the badness. In the exclamation What a shocking calamity! it adds weight to a noun that is already grim. Nothing needs to be unexpected, and that is the test that separates it from the startling sense. It belongs to casual talk, where it measures degree rather than astonishment.

4. 4
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of shock.

   The documentary succeeded in shocking audiences out of their complacency.

   Rising prices are shocking shoppers into changing their habits.

   Note

   The verb form carries every sense of shock, not only the emotional one. Shocking a pool means adding a chemical to adjust its chlorine. Shocking a stone means deforming its crystal structure under extreme pressure. To tell it from the startling adjective, look for an object: shocking audiences is the verb. The adjective is graded instead, as in a very shocking scene or a more shocking one.

5. 5
   noununcountable

   The act of applying an electric shock to a person, animal, or object.

   Repeated shocking of the heart finally restored a normal rhythm.

   The lab limited the shocking of each sample to brief, low-voltage pulses.

   Note

   A countable noun that takes a plural, shockings, and names separate acts rather than an ongoing action. Will Tuttle's The World Peace Diet (2005) lines shockings up with beatings and brandings, a list of discrete cruelties. It differs from the -ing form of shock in what follows it. The verb takes a direct object, while this noun takes of, as in the shocking of the heart.

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