shocks

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of shock.

   The mechanic warned that the worn shocks were affecting the ride quality.

   The earthquake sent a series of shocks through the region over several days.

   Note

   Every noun sense of shock can be counted, so the plural reaches all of them: jolts of impact, stunning surprises, electric discharges. When the word names a condition, such as the distress after bad news or circulatory shock in medicine, it more often stays a mass noun: a patient is in shock, not in shocks. The same spelling also serves as the present-tense verb, so read the shocks of the week as a noun and she shocks the room as a verb.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of shock.

   The ending shocks even viewers who think they have seen everything.

   A frayed wire shocks anyone who touches the metal casing.

   Note

   Here the form nearly always takes an object: a twist shocks an audience, a frayed wire shocks a hand, a technician shocks a pool to moderate its chlorine. Only the obsolete sense of colliding violently ran without one, and for that meaning a modern writer would reach for clash. Even the geologist's use is transitive, since an impact or lightning strike shocks the stone, deforming its crystal structure.

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