Meaning & use
shell shock
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Meaning
noununcountableold-fashionedmedical
A condition of severe anxiety, exhaustion, and nightmares suffered by soldiers after long exposure to battle, especially heavy shelling.
Grammar: Uncountable: you say he had shell shock, not a shell shock. It is an older term; modern doctors use PTSD.
Patterns
- suffer from shell shock
- have shell shock
- a case of shell shock
Many soldiers returning from the trenches were diagnosed with shell shock.
The novel describes a young officer suffering from shell shock after months at the front.
During World War I, shell shock was not well understood and was sometimes mistaken for cowardice.
Common combinations
- suffer from shell shock
- He suffered from shell shock for years after the war.
- a case of shell shock
- The hospital treated dozens of cases of shell shock.
- shell shock victim
- The charity helped shell shock victims rebuild their lives.
- shell-shocked troops
- The shell-shocked troops were sent to the rear for rest.
Synonyms and how they differ
- combat fatigue
- Combat fatigue was a later term for similar symptoms, used especially in World War II.
- post-traumatic stress disorder
- PTSD is the modern clinical diagnosis and is much broader, not limited to soldiers.
- battle fatigue
- Battle fatigue is another older term, similar in meaning to shell shock.
Word family
- shell-shocked adjective
- Suffering from shell shock; also used informally to mean very shocked or confused.
Commonly confused: shell shock or shell shock?
shell shock vs shell shock
Not to be confused with the literal shock of an exploding shell; the term refers to the lasting psychological condition.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'shell shock' correctly?
Choose one answer.
'Shell shock' is uncountable, so it takes no article and no plural. The other options incorrectly add 'a', 'the', or a plural -s.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “shell shock”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.