shock troops
plural noun
1
: troops especially suited and chosen for offensive work because of their high morale, training, and discipline
2
: a group of people militant in pressing for a cause
Example Sentences
Recent Examples on the Web The first of these is a horror story; in the course of almost three hours on Thursday night, Trump’s former aides recalled the surreal menace of watching the MAGA shock troops breach the Capitol. 
Katy Waldman, The New Yorker, 22 July 2022 The president’s all-too-late video calling off his shock troops was little more than a duck for cover. WSJ, 29 July 2022 Storms like these, the shock troops of the climate crisis, are bringing with them unprecedented rates of coastal erosion. Taras Grescoe, Smithsonian Magazine, 28 July 2022 During months-long campaigns, their army, which featured a corps of women warriors who served as shock troops, overran towns and villages, horrifically murdering some people as a tactic to get others to submit. David Wright Faladé, The New Yorker, 4 July 2022 Imagine Vladimir Putin has sent his shock troops to level your hometown, to occupy your high school and drop a missile on the hospital where you were born. Matthew Hennessey, WSJ, 10 Mar. 2022 According to this way of thinking, the U.S. military provides the shock troops of global capital, in a conspiracy to ensure the profitability of U.S. corporations. Patrick Iber, The New Republic, 11 Jan. 2022 The group—which spun out of Bernie Sanders’s 2016 presidential campaign—gathered shock troops this week outside Ms. Sinema’s Phoenix and Tucson offices to make a start on that threat. Kimberley A. Strassel, WSJ, 14 Oct. 2021 While the Emperor uses his deadly shock troops, the Sardaukar, to maintain order, rival houses jockey for power behind the scenes. Sean T. Collins, Rolling Stone, 12 Oct. 2021 See More
Katy Waldman, The New Yorker, 22 July 2022 The president’s all-too-late video calling off his shock troops was little more than a duck for cover. WSJ, 29 July 2022 Storms like these, the shock troops of the climate crisis, are bringing with them unprecedented rates of coastal erosion. Taras Grescoe, Smithsonian Magazine, 28 July 2022 During months-long campaigns, their army, which featured a corps of women warriors who served as shock troops, overran towns and villages, horrifically murdering some people as a tactic to get others to submit. David Wright Faladé, The New Yorker, 4 July 2022 Imagine Vladimir Putin has sent his shock troops to level your hometown, to occupy your high school and drop a missile on the hospital where you were born. Matthew Hennessey, WSJ, 10 Mar. 2022 According to this way of thinking, the U.S. military provides the shock troops of global capital, in a conspiracy to ensure the profitability of U.S. corporations. Patrick Iber, The New Republic, 11 Jan. 2022 The group—which spun out of Bernie Sanders’s 2016 presidential campaign—gathered shock troops this week outside Ms. Sinema’s Phoenix and Tucson offices to make a start on that threat. Kimberley A. Strassel, WSJ, 14 Oct. 2021 While the Emperor uses his deadly shock troops, the Sardaukar, to maintain order, rival houses jockey for power behind the scenes. Sean T. Collins, Rolling Stone, 12 Oct. 2021 See More Word History
First Known Use
1917, in the meaning defined at sense 1