shock to the system
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
A sudden and significant change or event
Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt
một thay đổi hoặc sự kiện đột ngột và quan trọng
Machine-translated — suggest a fix
Literally: an electric shock affecting a system
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
The news of the company's bankruptcy was a shock to the system
AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “shock to the system” mean?
A sudden and significant change or event Literally: an electric shock affecting a system
Is “shock to the system” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.