Meaning of shell shock | Babel Free

Definitions

1. A psychiatric condition characterized by fatigue caused by battle; it is not a current diagnosis in medicine, but it corresponds largely with the current diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder.
   uncountable
2. A person with the condition.
   colloquial, countable, uncountable
3. A stunning shock.
   broadly, countable, figuratively, uncountable
4. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see shell, shock.
   countable, uncountable

Equivalents

Examples

“There's a condition in combat—most people know⟳ it by now. It occurs when a soldier's nervous system has reached the breaking point⟳. In World War I, it was called shell shock⟳. Simple, honest, direct⟳ language. Two syllables. Shell shock⟳. Almost sounds like⟳ the guns themselves. Shell shock⟳!!”

“I passed through the shell-shock wards and a yard where the "shell-shocks" sat about, dumb, or making queer, foolish noises, or staring with a look⟳ of animal fear in their eyes.”

“Of the 79 officer casualties 10 were "shell-shocks", or about 12 per cent, of the whole. Of the 10 shell-shocks 4 were sent to C.C.S. and 6 to Corps Rest⟳ Station.”

“Most nurses found the helplessness of "the shell shocks" painful and "pitiful."”

“"[…]Think⟳ of me / With all these psychic shell shocks — first the war, / Its great emotions, then this Elenor."”

“But while malls killed much of downtown America, they only partially injured New York City. The density of this city guaranteed a less dramatic impact than the shell shocks that crippled so many other cities.”

“The other was to go on, to the next drink⟳ or the bed or the grass outside, where the party-noises ebbed and flowed like⟳ shell-shocks and the Southern Cross burnt crookedly above.”

CEFR level