shockingadjective
uk/ˈʃɒk.ɪŋ/us/ˈʃɑː.kɪŋ/shocking adjective (OFFENSIVE)
B1 offensive, upsetting, or immoral:
The sex scenes in the book were considered very shocking at the time when it was published.
There are few crimes more truly shocking than the murder or abuse of children.
More examples
- The city's most shocking statistic is its high infant mortality rate.
- He gave a very vivid and often shocking account of his time in prison.
- The motive for this shocking attack seems to be racial hatred.
- There were some very shocking pictures of the fighting on the news last night.
- The whole country has been outraged by this most shocking of crimes.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Morally wrong and evil
- abhorrent
- amoral
- anomie
- arch-villain
- be rotten to the core idiom
- canker
- darkly
- evil
- evildoer
- go to the bad idiom
- godless
- hanky-panky
- heinous
- immoral
- scandalous
- seamy
- seedy
- shockingly
- sinful
- wickedness
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Saddening, shocking and upsetting
shocking adjective (VERY BAD)
mainly UK informal extremely bad or unpleasant, or of very low quality:
What shocking weather!
My memory is shocking.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Not of good quality
- a miserable, poor, etc. excuse for sth idiom
- apology
- atrocious
- awful
- badly
- be an apology for sth idiom
- clunky
- come/be a poor second, third, etc. idiom
- downmarket
- downscale
- inadequacy
- inadequate
- motley
- mouldy
- not set the world on fire idiom
- tacky
- unattractive
- unimpressed
- weak sauce
- worst
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Serious and unpleasant
shocking adjective (SURPRISING)
extremely surprising:
The news came as a shocking blow.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Surprising and shocking
- a blinding flash idiom
- a bolt from/out of the blue idiom
- amaze
- amazing
- astonish
- bolt
- breath
- dynamite
- earth-shattering
- expectation
- eye-opener
- faze
- revelation
- staggering
- startle
- startling
- sting
- stunning
- stupefy
- thunderbolt
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