shell-shocked

shell-shocked

1. In a state of intense psychological strain, distress, or trauma as a result of prolonged engagement in combat warfare. The term was popularized during the First World War in reference to soldiers returning from combat; it is more commonly known in modern times as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and has expanded to cover the psychological damage caused by any kind of traumatic event. My brother was lucky enough to come home from the war alive, but he was shell-shocked for the rest of his life. You come back from war a little bit more cynical, a little less inclined to smile, and everyone immediately thinks you're shell-shocked.
2. In a state of utter disbelief, confusion, grief, or shock caused by a powerful and upsetting event. The family has been dealing with shell shock after finding out their father had gambled away their life savings. The fans seemed to be stricken with shell shock after their team—heavily favored to win the championship—were robbed of victory in the final seconds of the game.
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.
See also:
  • enemy combatant
  • self-propelled sandbag
  • Drumpf
  • hoser
  • prepare
  • be prepared
  • vajayjay
  • Cheshire cat
  • cool!
  • smiling like a Cheshire cat
References in periodicals archive
For shell-shocked veterans, the tasks of remembering and
"Belated Impress": River George and the African American Shell Shock Narrative
Other experts employed electric shock therapy, which involved the brutal electrocution of tongues, eyelids, and even genitals in order to elicit a response and bring shell-shocked men out of their catatonic state.
The great war of the mind: no one really knew how to treat the alarming number of soldiers who suffered shell shock in World War I. so doctors tried everything, including shaming, blaming, and electric shocks
"But the players are just as shell-shocked because I don't think they saw this coming.
Jones ready to read riot act over second-half collapse
But maybe we're not shell-shocked; we're shelter-shocked.
Baghdad, Louisiana
They appear shell-shocked by dwindling sales, demoralized employees, evaporating market capitalization - and the lingering possibility, however remote, that a skeleton in the closet could trigger the next world-class business collapse.
We're listening; but nobody's talking: a corporate communications executive calls on today's leaders to lead. (From Where I Sit)
MIJAS-based trainer Joey Brown was yesterday described as "shell-shocked" after he was visited in prison for the first time since being seized in a massive drugs raid by Spanish police almost two weeks ago, writes Graham Green.
`Drug-bust' trainer pins his hopes on British consulate
A corollary states that many investors are so shell-shocked by the ruin visited on their portfolios in the past two years that they will never return to the market.
When Wall Street was cool. (Flip Side)
With the Dons smelling blood, shell-shocked Preston went behind nine min-utes from time when McAnuff curled in a superb effort from Neil Shipperley's intelligent ball.
FOOTBALL: PRESTON 3 WIMBLEDON 5
If investors were shell-shocked last year when Dale Bryant, founder and portfolio manager of The Bryant Group, a money management firm in New York City, offered up defensive stock picks to fend off market volatility, they might be feeling a bit better if they followed his strategy.
Making defensive adjustments: Dale Bryant's defensive picks helped to shield against market volatility. (Stock Update)
Read's account remains the more convincing though, because it is, like Barker's, not confined by the fragments of evidence that remain, and it is therefore able to penetrate more effectively the mind of the central protagonist--the shell-shocked soldier--and the military leaders and administrative framework within which they functioned.
Essay review: Making shell-shock
But this procedure can leave the worker shell-shocked in his new environment.
Supervising from the worker point-of-view
Explaining to shell-shocked victims that somehow it's better if their jobs are eliminated must not be the corporate communicator's primary focus.
Forget damage control ... focus on the C.I
Some, especially the old communists, are too shell-shocked to do anything but cling pathetically to the tattered remnants of their faith.'
Paradise lost: the Vietnamese gulag
Pellegrini looked shell-shocked after the defeat to Leicester last week and has looked drawn and pale TURN TO PAGE 54 FROM BACK PAGE as the pressure mounts on him.
CITY STARS FEAR PELL MELTDOWN; City stars' Pell worry
Caption: A shell-shocked soldier receives an electrical shock treatment from a nurse.
Shell shock: the culture of cowardice in the first world war