😲 A big surprise 😬 A terrible person

shocker

5 7.4

A person who behaves very badly and upsets other people

noun
/ˈʃɑːkər/

Offensive

: canalla (informal, ofensivo)

Well, there's a shocker: Sheryl Crow and Laurie David have enormous egos and senses of personal entitlement.
hardly a shocker
still a shocker

Examples

This place is a shocker.

Fat Pizza (2003)
It feels like hunger, but I really have no desire to eat, which is a total shocker to me.

Blog text (9)
Known for your foolish, rambling posts, Ben, you have really screwed up with this shocker.

Blog text (33)
Here's a shocker, however: they aren't the best offense.

Blog text (12)
The idea that he could win the contest with such a poor performance was a real shocker to everyone.
During the meeting, her shocking behavior was deemed a true shocker by the entire team.
His unexpected resignation was nothing short of a shocker for the company's employees.

Synonyms

stinker

vsshocker

Offensive

10 7.2

A person who is mean or dishonest

is more about being extremely bad or causing strong surprise

rotter

vsshocker

Offensive

9 8.9

A person who treats others very badly

is focused on being extremely bad rather than merely unpleasant

revolter

vsshocker

8.8

A person or thing that causes strong disgust in others

is concerned with being extremely bad rather than only provoking disgust

How Shocking

shocker

Offensive

5 7.4

shock

567 2.3

surprise

738 1.0

oddity

15 5.3

Surface Forms

shocker singular

shockers plural

Morphology

shocker = shock (semi-transparent) = shock + er

The word is built regularly from 'shock' + '-er', but the sense 'a person who is shockingly bad or objectionable' is a figurative extension rather than a fully literal doer noun.

Etymology

Shocker comes from the word shock, which means 'a sudden hit or surprise', plus the ending -er, which makes 'one who causes' something. So a shocker can be a person who shocks others by acting in a very rude or bad way.