Shake
English Meaning
To cause to move with quick or violent vibrations; to move rapidly one way and the other; to make to tremble or shiver; to agitate.
- To cause to move to and fro with jerky movements.
- To cause to quiver, tremble, vibrate, or rock.
- To cause to lose stability or waver: a crisis that shook my deepest beliefs.
- To remove or dislodge by jerky movements: shook the dust from the cushions.
- To bring to a specified condition by or as if by shaking: "It is not easy to shake one's heart free of the impression” ( John Middleton Murry).
- Slang To get rid of: couldn't shake the man who was following us.
- To disturb or agitate; unnerve: She was shaken by the news of the disaster.
- To brandish or wave, especially in anger: shake one's fist.
- To clasp (hands) in greeting or leave-taking or as a sign of agreement.
- Music To trill (a note).
- Games To rattle and mix (dice) before casting.
- To move to and fro in short, irregular, often jerky movements.
- To tremble, as from cold or in anger.
- To be unsteady; totter or waver.
- To move something vigorously up and down or from side to side, as in mixing.
- Music To trill.
- To shake hands: Let's shake on it.
- The act of shaking.
- A trembling or quivering movement.
- Informal An earthquake.
- A fissure in rock.
- A crack in timber caused by wind or frost.
- Informal A moment or instant; a trice: I'll do it in a shake.
- Music A trill.
- See milk shake.
- A beverage in which the ingredients are mixed by shaking.
- A rough shingle used to cover rustic buildings, such as barns: cedar shakes.
- Informal Uncontrollable trembling, as in a person who is cold, frightened, feverish, or ill. Often used with the: was suffering from a bad case of the shakes.
- Slang A bargain or deal: getting a fair shake.
- shake down Slang To extort money from.
- shake down Slang To make a thorough search of: shook down the prisoners' cells for hidden weapons.
- shake down To subject (a new ship or aircraft) to shakedown testing.
- shake down To become acclimated or accustomed, as to a new environment or a new job.
- shake off To free oneself of; get rid of: We shook off our fears.
- shake up To upset by or as if by a physical jolt or shock: was badly shaken up by the accident.
- shake up To subject to a drastic rearrangement or reorganization: new management bent on shaking up the company.
- give (someone) the shake Slang To escape from or get rid of: We managed to give our pursuers the shake.
- no great shakes Slang Unexceptional; ordinary: "stepping in between the victim and the bully, even when the victim happens to be no great shakes” ( Louis Auchincloss).
- shake a leg Informal To dance.
- shake a leg Informal To move quickly; hurry up.
- shake (another's) tree Slang To arouse to action or reaction; disturb: "[He] so shook Hollywood's tree that . . . all manner of . . . people called me unsolicited to itemize his mistakes or praise his courage” ( Tina Brown).
- shake a stick at Slang To point out, designate, or name: "All of a sudden there came into being a vast conservative infrastructure: think-tanks . . . and more foundations than you could shake a stick at” ( National Review).