/ˈʃeɪk/
OriginFrom 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 shake”), 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.
- ergative, transitiveTo 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.”
“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 he”
- transitiveTo move (one's head) from side to side, especially to indicate refusal, reluctance, or disapproval.
“Shaking his head, he kept repeating “No, no, no”.”
“I became alſo a reproch vnto them: when they looked vpon me, they ſhaked their heads.”
- transitiveTo move or remove by agitating; to throw off by a jolting or vibrating motion.
“to shake fruit down from a tree”
“[…]Shake off the golden ſlumber of repoſe;[…]”
“But indeed this Shame was a bold Villain; I could ſcarce ſhake him out of my company; [...]”
- transitiveTo disturb emotionally; to shock.
“Her father’s death shook her terribly.”
“He was shaken by what had happened.”
“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 foundati”
- idiomatic, transitiveTo lose, evade, or get rid of (something).
“I can’t shake the feeling that I forgot something.”
- intransitiveTo move from side to side.
“She shook with grief.”
“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, usuallyTo shake hands.
- intransitiveTo dance.
“She was shaking it on the dance floor.”
- transitiveTo give a tremulous tone to; to trill.
“to shake a note in music”
- figuratively, transitiveTo threaten to overthrow.
“The experience shook my religious belief.”
“The story of Ms. He and her mother began in the early 1960s, shortly before the Cultural Revolution shook China.”
- figuratively, intransitiveTo be agitated; to lose firmness.
- countable, uncountableThe 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.”
- countable, plural-normally, uncountableA twitch, a spasm, a tremor.
“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 ”
- countable, uncountableA dance popular in the 1960s in which the head, limbs, and body are shaken.
“The snake did the frug, the monkey did the shake. The crowd, mostly young couples, tourists and kids, loved it.”
- countable, uncountableA milkshake.
- countable, uncountableA beverage made by adding ice cream to a (usually carbonated) drink; a float.
- countable, uncountableShake cannabis, small, leafy fragments of cannabis that gather at the bottom of a bag of marijuana.
- US, slang, uncountableAn adulterant added to cocaine powder.
“[…] most suppliers will allow up to 120 grams of shake to a kilo, or 12 percent; kilo-level buyers are usually unhappy if they find more.”
- countable, uncountableA thin shingle.
- countable, uncountableA crack or split between the growth rings in wood.
- countable, uncountableA fissure in rock or earth.
- countable, uncountableA basic wooden shingle made from split logs, traditionally used for roofing etc.
- countable, informal, uncountableInstant, second. (Especially in two shakes.)
““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.””
- countable, uncountableOne of the staves of a hogshead or barrel taken apart.
“Empty casks are[…]taken to pieces, and the staves closely packed up in a cylindrical form, constituting what are called shakes or packs”
- countable, uncountableA rapid alternation of a principal tone with another represented on the next degree of the staff above or below it; a trill.
- countable, uncountableIn singing, notes (usually high ones) sung vibrato.
“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”
- countable, uncountableA shook of staves and headings.
- UK, countable, dialectal, uncountableThe redshank, so called from the nodding of its head while on the ground.
- countable, uncountableA shock or disturbance.
“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 g”
- countable, historical, uncountableAn informal unit of time equal to 10 nanoseconds.
“Most of the fission energy was released in the last few generations, so if the device blew itself apart before about fifty-seven shakes had elapsed, […]”
Formsshakes(present, singular, third-person) · shaking(participle, present) · shook(past) · shaked(past, rare) · shooketh(past, slang) · shaken(participle, past) · shook(dialectal, participle, past) · shooken(dialectal, nonstandard, participle, past) · shakes(plural) · Shakes(plural)