shell shock

noun

: post-traumatic stress disorder occurring under wartime conditions (as combat) that cause intense stress : battle fatigue, combat fatigue

In the receiving ward he found a patient shivering on his bunk with a diagnosis—in this case accurate—of severe shell shock.

—Albert E. Cowdrey

A Veterans Administration psychiatrist, Dr. Jack Ewald, has reckoned that some 700,000 Vietnam veterans have suffered from various forms of "post-traumatic stress syndrome," the modern term for what was called "shell shock" in World War I and "battle fatigue" in World War II.

—Stanley Karnow

Examples of shell shock in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

As a result, the shell shock of the past 24 months for consumers is still wearing off. —Rob Wile, NBC News, 11 Jan. 2024

But Morrissey zeroes in on present-tense shell shock. —Armond White, National Review, 1 Nov. 2023

The book comprises portraits of healers, including W. H. R. Rivers, who treated soldiers who suffered from shell shock during the First World War, and Paul Robeson, who found solace in intuition and in the irrational. —Condé Nast, The New Yorker, 17 July 2023

Richardson provided two of the three big swings over the first three innings that helped the Horned Frogs shell shock the Razorbacks and most of the 11,121 in attendance at Baum-Walker Stadium. —Matt Jones, Arkansas Online, 5 June 2023

Word History

First Known Use

1915, in the meaning defined above

Kids Definition

shell shock

noun

: any of numerous nervous conditions appearing in soldiers exposed to modern warfare

Medical Definition

shell shock

noun

: combat fatigue