shocking
/ˈʃɒkɪŋ
/adjective
1Causing indignation or disgust; offensive: shocking behaviour...
- There is some really shocking and disgusting stuff in this book.
- The offensive and shocking new program is a show for blokes about being a bloke and doing blokey things.
- We just had to deal with such a shocking, disgusting situation.
1.1Causing a feeling of surprise and dismay: she brought shocking news...
- And a Missouri family got a shocking surprise when they moved into their apartment.
- They were in fear for his safety after watching television news reports showing the shocking effects of the floods in Mozambique - the worst for 40 years.
- With this shocking admission, our news team realized that the problem of fraudulent grading ran deeper than we had feared.
Synonyms
appalling, horrifying, horrific, dreadful, awful, frightful, terrible, horrible, scandalous, outrageous, disgraceful, vile, abominable, ghastly, foul, monstrous, unspeakable, abhorrent, hideous, atrocious, repellent, revolting, odious, repulsive, repugnant, disgusting, nauseating, sickening, grisly, loathsome, offensive, distressing, upsetting, perturbing, disturbing, disquieting, unsettling, agitating;
stunning, staggering, amazing, astonishing, startling, stupefying, overwhelming, bewildering, unnerving, surprising
1.2British informal Very bad: I’ve got a shocking cold...
- And then he committed a shocking foul on the goalkeeper.
Derivatives
shockingness
- The shockingness is that evoked by the poet W.H. Auden, who memorably wrote in his essay on the genre, ‘The Guilty Vicarage’, that murder should happen in the Great Good Place.
- The political order, in which the shockingness of a world which makes no special place for us can be openly confessed to, is a rare achievement.
- And a restaurant can surely do no more than this - than to restore the original shockingness of food.