shockablen.adj.
/ˈʃɒkəbl/, U.S. /ˈʃɑkəb(ə)l/ A. n.† 1. Something shocking or scandalous. Obsolete.
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1839 J. P. Robson Poetic Gatherings Introd. p. viii A dish of Shockables from Juan comes Which is devoured like ice or sugar-plums.
1910 K. G. Busbey Home Life Amer. i. 20 It is quite useless to say that manners and conventions are a matter of comparative ‘shockables with each nation’.
2.
a. A person who can be shocked or offended. Chiefly in plural.
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1867 Round Table 5 Oct. 225/3 Our fastidious, first-class shockables mostly took the benefit of the doubt and went while it was not yet obligatory to blush.
1929 W. S. Gray Junior College Curriculum 124 This is the only expedient we have provided for straining out the shockables.
1980 P. Engel High Gloss viii. 92 The brilliant associate publisher of the bible of the fashion industry entertained his friends by shocking the very few shockables to be found in this throng of sophisticates.
b. With the and plural agreement: people who can be shocked or offended, considered collectively.
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1914 New Statesman 30 May 251/1 At the sound of it the diffident prepare to lay down their opinions, the enthusiastic to receive a cold douche, the shockable to wince, the critic—to trip upon the most outrageous fallacies.
1965 Listener 1 July 12/1 Experimental plays, full of loose living and talk..should be put on at a rather late hour at regular intervals, so that the shockable know not to look.
2005 Herald Express (Torquay) (Nexis) 22 Oct. 15 (header) The shockable need not apply.
B. adj.
1. Liable to shock or offend; shocking, scandalous. Now rare.
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1874 R. M. Ballantyne Pirate City xxii. 281 ‘Oh! it shockable,’ said Bobi. ‘Come an' see.’
1926 M. S. Welch Vrouw Knickerbocker xi. 165 A dig in the ribs, with an arch wink that may mean otherwise inexpressible, shockable things, and a whisper, ‘Oh, but you are a sly old dog.’
1971 S. Weintraub Journey to Heartbreak 99 Had the Dispatch's critic been listening during the Hell scene, he might have found some shockable lines.
2. Capable of being shocked or offended.
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the mind > emotion > excitement > excitability of temperament > [adjective] > nervous or easily agitated
agitable1603
wincing1603
nervous1740
nervo-sanguineous1807
alarmable1813
intense1817
tense1821
finely-strung1841
flutterable1891
nerve-ridden1892
shockable1893
the mind > attention and judgement > contempt > disapproval > [adjective] > shocked > able to be
shockable1893
1877 [implied in: Vanity Fair 25 Aug. 117/2 Alice..had so low an estimate of Mrs. Belfort's capabilities in the way of British shockableness, that no more agreeable society could at this juncture have been provided her.].
1888 Current Lit. Dec. 496/1 A shockable young woman (rare now), of stern and sordid parents.
1929 M. Arlen Babes in Wood 254 How..nice I think you are—to be so shockable. How different from your books!
1976 S. Barstow Right True End iii. xii. 183 I think she's shockable. I'm not certain how her loyalty to me would stand the strain if she knew I was knocking off a colleague's wife.
2012 Times 27 Nov. 53/3 To say that I am not shockable does not mean I am not disgusted by some of the things I have seen.
3. Of an abnormal heart rhythm, esp. one that prevents or severely impairs the pumping action of the heart: that can be converted to a more normal rhythm by an electrical shock from a defibrillator, thus restoring the functioning of the heart.
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1983 Primary Cardiol. Mar. 212/2 In a patient with VF [= ventricular fibrillation], the device recorded it as a shockable rhythm within 7 seconds.
1994 Charleston Gaz. (W. Virginia) (Nexis) 5 Oct. 5 An assistant supervisor with the ambulance authority said cardiac arrest victims if in a shockable rhythm have an 85 to 90 percent chance of survival if they are defibrillated within a certain time frame.
2022 D. Paschoud et al. in C. Carter & J. Notter COVID-19 Crit. Care Textbk. xiii. 195 If the initial rhythm is shockable, then this adrenaline regime should only be initiated after the third shock is administered.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2022).
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n.adj.1839