Interesting....
In other words, they can quickly change from liquid to rock-hard solid when they're hit with something forceful, like a stray bullet, for example.
The term for shear thickening is "rheopectic" and the behavior is "rheopexy."
One typical example is a bucket of sand that has more than enough water to fill the void space between the packed particles. Once that space is filled, additional water will permit the particles to pass over each other, thus making it possible to stir the sand-water mixture. But if one tries to stir faster, the grains interfere with each other more stongly, thus causing shear-thickening behavior. That shear-thickening is rheopexy.
On the other hand, some liquid/solid particle interactions exhibit thinning (lower viscosity) when shear rate is increased. These pastes quickly regain their high viscosity after stirring ceases. This is called "thixotropy" and is exhibited with some fluids like mayonnaise. Clay-water suspensions also may show thixotropy.
A "Newtonian" fluid has the same viscosity throughout its rate of deformation.
FYI