adj, noun, verb, slang ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   The application of an electric shock.

   "We terrorize millions of vulnerable and defenseless animals daily with painful shockings, beatings, brandings, […]"

Verb

1. 1
   present participle and gerund of shock form-of, gerund, participle, present

Adjective

1. 1
   Inspiring shock; startling.
2. 2
   Unusually obscene or lewd.
3. 3
   Extremely bad. colloquial

   "What a shocking calamity!"

Adjective

1. 1
   giving offense to moral sensibilities and injurious to reputation wordnet
2. 2
   glaringly vivid and graphic; marked by sensationalism wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

scandalousabhorrentabominableabruptabsoluteamazing

Antonyms

All antonyms

dreichmodest

Example

More examples

"An opinion is shocking only if it is a conviction."

Etymology

From shock + -ing.

Related phrases

shocking pinkelectric shock

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.