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

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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 See all Example Sentences for shell shock