shake
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Etymology
From Middle English schaken, from Old English sċeacan, sċacan (“to shake”), from Proto-West Germanic *skakan, from Proto-Germanic *skakaną (“to shake, swing, escape”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)keg-, *(s)kek- (“to jump, move”).
Cognate with Scots schake, schack (“to shake”), West Frisian schaekje (“to shake”), Dutch schaken (“to elope, make clean, shake”), Low German schaken (“to move, shift, push, shake”) and schacken (“to shake, shock”), Old Norse skaka (“to shaka”), Norwegian Nynorsk skaka (“to shake”), Swedish skaka (“to shake”), Danish skage (“to shake”), Dutch schokken (“to shake, shock”), Russian скака́ть (skakátʹ, “to jump”). More at shock.
Pronunciation
Verb
shake (third-person singular simple present shakes, present participle shaking, simple past shook or (rare) shaked or (slang) shooketh, past participle shaken or (dialectal) shook)
- (transitive, ergative) To cause (something) to move rapidly in opposite directions alternatingly.
- The earthquake shook the building.
- He shook the can of soda for thirty seconds before delivering it to me, so that, when I popped it open, soda went everywhere.
- 1963, Margery Allingham, “Meeting Point”, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC, page 232:
- Meanwhile Nanny Broome was recovering from her initial panic and now seemed anxious to make up for any kudos she might have lost, by exerting her personality to the utmost. She took the policeman's helmet and placed it on a chair, and unfolded his tunic to shake it and fold it up again for him.
- (transitive) To move (one's head) from side to side, especially to indicate refusal, reluctance, or disapproval.
- Shaking his head, he kept repeating “No, no, no”.
- 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Psalms 109:25, column 1:
- I became alſo a reproch vnto them: when they looked vpon me, they ſhaked their heads.
- (transitive) To move or remove by agitating; to throw off by a jolting or vibrating motion.
- to shake fruit down from a tree
- c. 1607–1608, William Shakeſpeare, The Late, And much admired Play, Called Pericles, Prince of Tyre. […], London: Imprinted at London for Henry Goſſon, […], published 1609, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]:
- […] Shake off the golden ſlumber of repoſe; […]
- 1680, John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress from This World, to That which is to Come: […], 5th edition, Edinburgh: […] Iohn Cairns, […], →OCLC, page 70:
- But indeed this Shame was a bold Villain; I could ſcarce ſhake him out of my company; [...]
- (transitive) To disturb emotionally; to shock.
- Synonym: traumatize
- Her father’s death shook her terribly.
- He was shaken by what had happened.
- 2013 July 20, “The attack of the MOOCs”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845:
- Since the launch early last year of […] two Silicon Valley start-ups offering free education through MOOCs, massive open online courses, the ivory towers of academia have been shaken to their foundations. University brands built in some cases over centuries have been forced to contemplate the possibility that information technology will rapidly make their existing business model obsolete.
- (transitive, idiomatic) To lose, evade, or get rid of (something).
- I can’t shake the feeling that I forgot something.
- (intransitive) To move from side to side.
- 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XXIII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
- The slightest effort made the patient cough. He would stand leaning on a stick and holding a hand to his side, and when the paroxysm had passed it left him shaking.
- (intransitive, usually as "shake on") To shake hands.
- OK, let’s shake on it.
- (intransitive) To dance.
- She was shaking it on the dance floor.
- (transitive) To give a tremulous tone to; to trill.
- to shake a note in music
- (transitive, figurative) To threaten to overthrow.
- The experience shook my religious belief.
- 2014 January 20, Didi Kirsten Tatlow, “‘She. Herself. Naked.': The Art of He Chengyao”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 16 August 2023, Sinosphere:
- The story of Ms. He and her mother began in the early 1960s, shortly before the Cultural Revolution shook China.
- (intransitive, figurative) To be agitated; to lose firmness.
Derived terms
Terms derived from shake (verb)
- beshake
- bone-shaking
- more than one can shake a stick at
- more than you can shake a stick at
- shake a cloth in the wind
- shake a leg
- shake and bake, shake 'n bake
- shake down
- shake hands
- shake hands with the unemployed
- shake in one's boots
- shake in one's shoes
- shake it
- shake like a leaf
- shake like a leaf
- shaken baby syndrome
- shake off
- shake off the dust from one's feet
- shake one's ass
- shake one's elbow
- shake one's head
- shake on it
- shake out
- shake over
- shaker
- shake that monkey
- shake the dust from one's feet
- shake the dust from one's sandals
- shake the pagoda tree
- shake the plum tree
- shake together
- shake up
- shaking rat Kawasaki
- soul-shaking
- tree shaking
- what's shaking
- world-shaking
Translations
transitive: to cause to move
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to move one's head from side to side
|
transitive: to disturb emotionally
|
transitive: to lose, evade
|
intransitive: to move from side to side
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intransitive: to shake hands
|
intransitive: to dance
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
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Noun
shake (plural shakes)
- The act of shaking or being shaken; tremulous or back-and-forth motion.
- The cat gave the mouse a shake.
- She replied in the negative, with a shake of her head.
- (usually in the plural) A twitch, a spasm, a tremor.
- c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act II, scene i:
- And when the princely Perſean Diadem,
Shall ouerweigh his wearie witleſſe head,
And fall like mellowed fruit, with ſhakes of death,
In faire Perſea noble Tamburlain
Shall be my Regent, and remaine as King:
- (usually preceded by definite article) A dance popular in the 1960s in which the head, limbs, and body are shaken.
- 1969, Allen V. Ross, Vice in Bombay, London: Tallis Press, page 52:
- The snake did the frug, the monkey did the shake. The crowd, mostly young couples, tourists and kids, loved it.
- A milkshake.
- A beverage made by adding ice cream to a (usually carbonated) drink; a float.
- Shake cannabis, small, leafy fragments of cannabis that gather at the bottom of a bag of marijuana.
- (US, slang, uncountable) An adulterant added to cocaine powder.[1]
- (building material) A thin shingle.
- A crack or split between the growth rings in wood.
- A fissure in rock or earth.
- A basic wooden shingle made from split logs, traditionally used for roofing etc.
- (informal) Instant, second. (Especially in two shakes.)
- 1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter XXI, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, →OCLC:
- “And do you realize that in a few shakes I've got to show up at dinner and have Mrs Cream being very, very kind to me? It hurts the pride of the Woosters, Jeeves.”
- (nautical) One of the staves of a hogshead or barrel taken apart.
- 1820, William Scoresby, An Account of the Arctic Regions:
- Empty casks are […] taken to pieces, and the staves closely packed up in a cylindrical form, constituting what are called shakes or packs
- (music) A rapid alternation of a principal tone with another represented on the next degree of the staff above or below it; a trill.
- (music) In singing, notes (usually high ones) sung vibrato.
- 1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XIV, in Romance and Reality. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 263:
- A Signora Rossinuola, with the face of a goddess, and the voice of an angel, made her first curtsy that evening to the Neapolitans. She was received with the most rapturous applause. Nothing was heard of next day but her shake and her smile.
- A shook of staves and headings.[2]
- (UK, dialect) The redshank, so called from the nodding of its head while on the ground.
- A shock or disturbance.
- 1864, Elizabeth Gaskell, Cousin Phillis:
- As long as I had seen Mr Holdsworth in the rooms at the little inn at Hensleydale, where I had been accustomed to look upon him as an invalid, I had not been aware of the visible shake his fever had given to his health.
Derived terms
Terms derived from shake (noun)
- brace of shakes
- camera shake
- cup shake
- Danbury shakes
- elbow shake
- fair shake
- fair shake of the sauce bottle
- Gen Z shake
- give one's head a shake
- in a brace of shakes
- in a couple of shakes
- in a few shakes
- in two shakes
- in two shakes, in two shakes of a cow's tail, etc.
- in two shakes of a cow's tail
- in two shakes of a dog's tail
- in two shakes of a duck's tail
- in two shakes of a lamb's tail
- microshake
- milkshake
- no great shakes
- pea shake
- protein shake
- shakemap, shake map
- shake table
- shakeup, shake-up
- shimmy shake
- Wuhan shake
Translations
act of shaking
|
milkshake
|
beverage made of ice cream and carbonated drink — see float
building material: thin shingle
informal: instant, second
See also
- (crack or split in wood): knot
References
- Tom Dalzell (ed.), The Routledge Dictionary of Modern American Slang and Unconventional English, New York: Routledge, 2009, p. 858.
- Edward H[enry] Knight (1877) “Shake”, in Knight’s American Mechanical Dictionary. […], volumes III (REA–ZYM), New York, N.Y.: Hurd and Houghton […], →OCLC.
Anagrams
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