shock n.
(US) a measure of cheap liquor.
Day By Day in New York 22 Feb. [synd. col.] Orlie Huff is back on the bowery — back where the five-cent whiskies are called ‘shocks’. | ||
Anna Christie Act I: (They range themselves at the bar.) Gimme a shock. | ||
Cop Remembers 136: They used to call them ‘block and fall joints.’ You get a shock walk a block and fall in the gutter. |
In compounds
(US) a tavern, catering mainly to black people, in which customers would most likely be given some form of knockout drop in their drink and then robbed.
Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 168: Shock Joint. – A cheap saloon or speakeasy where the liquor is all of a sort which ‘shocks’ or galvanizes the drinker for a short time or until two or three drinks are consumed, then sends him into a drugged sleep. | ||
(con. late 19C) Cop Remembers 136: A few doors away was a five-cent ‘shock house,’ a cheap liquor store for colored men. | ||
Back Where I Came From (1990) 140: The shock houses have cleaned up their windows [...] and obtained liquor licenses. |
SE in slang uses
In compounds
the female breasts.
DSUE (8th edn) 1055/2: since ca. 1950. |
(W.I.) anything exceptionally eye-catching.
Official Dancehall Dict. 48: Shock-out (of appearance) anything fabulous or eye catching: u. de car a shock-out/it’s eye catching. |
In phrases
(W.I.) excellent.
Official Dancehall Dict. 47: Shock ’n’ sting far out (of fashion, music). |
(US campus) a course in introductory engineering.
Official Preppie Hbk. |