Shake Definition

shāk
shaken, shakes, shaking, shook
verb
shaken, shakes, shaking, shook
To cause to move up and down, back and forth, or from side to side with short, quick movements.
Webster's New World
To become unsteady; totter; reel.
Webster's New World
To cause to quiver or tremble.
Chills that shook his body.
Webster's New World
To cause to lose stability or strength, as of conviction.
A crisis that has shaken my deepest beliefs.
American Heritage
To bring, force, mix, stir up, dislodge, rearrange, etc. by or as by abrupt, brisk movements.
To shake a medicine before taking it.
Webster's New World
Antonyms:
noun
An act of shaking; back-and-forth movement.
Webster's New World
An unsteady or trembling movement; tremor.
Webster's New World
A natural split or fissure in rock or timber.
Webster's New World
An earthquake.
Webster's New World
A long, rough-hewn shingle split from a log.
Webster's New World
idiom
give (someone) the shake
  • To escape from or get rid of:

    We managed to give our pursuers the shake.

American Heritage
no great shakes
  • Unexceptional; ordinary:
American Heritage
shake a leg
  • To dance.
  • To move quickly; hurry up.
American Heritage
shake (someone's) tree
  • To arouse to action or reaction; disturb:
American Heritage
shake a stick at
  • To point out, designate, or name:
American Heritage

Other Word Forms of Shake

Noun

Singular:
shake
Plural:
shakes

Idioms, Phrasal Verbs Related to Shake

Origin of Shake

  • From Middle English schaken, from Old English sceacan, scacan (“to shake"). from Proto-Germanic *skakanÄ… (“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 schacken (“to shake"), Swedish skaka (“to shake"), Dutch schokken (“to shake, shock"), Russian скакать (skakatʹ, “to jump"). More at shock.

    From Wiktionary

  • Middle English schaken from Old English sceacan

    From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition

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