English Explanatory Dictionary

shake

English dictionary entry

Meanings

verb
  1. To cause (something) to move rapidly in opposite directions alternatingly.
  2. To move (one's head) from side to side, especially to indicate refusal, reluctance, or disapproval.
  3. To move or remove by agitating; to throw off by a jolting or vibrating motion.
  4. To disturb emotionally; to shock.
  5. To lose, evade, or get rid of (something).
  6. To move from side to side.
  7. To shake hands.
  8. To dance.
  9. To give a tremulous tone to; to trill.
  10. To threaten to overthrow.
  11. To be agitated; to lose firmness.
noun
  1. The act of shaking or being shaken; tremulous or back-and-forth motion.
  2. A twitch, a spasm, a tremor.
  3. A dance popular in the 1960s in which the head, limbs, and body are shaken.
  4. A milkshake.
  5. A beverage made by adding ice cream to a (usually carbonated) drink; a float.
  6. Shake cannabis, small, leafy fragments of cannabis that gather at the bottom of a bag of marijuana.
  7. An adulterant added to cocaine powder.
  8. A crack or split between the growth rings in wood.
  9. A fissure in rock or earth.
  10. A type of wooden shingle originally made from split timber.
  11. Instant, second. (Especially in two shakes.)
  12. One of the staves of a hogshead or barrel taken apart.
name
  1. A surname.

Pronunciation

/ˈʃeɪk/ en-us-shake.ogg

Word forms

shake shakes shaking shook shaked shooketh shaken shooken

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 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.

Synonyms

jiggle quake shag shake tremble vibrate wiggle traumatize shiver

Related words

spasm wriggle sway knot

Derived words

ashake atshake beshake bone-shaking forshake make shit shake more than one can shake a stick at more than you can shake a stick at outshake overshake reshake shakable shakeable shake a cloth in the wind shake a leg shake-a-leg shake and bake shake 'n bake shake a stick at shake down shakefork shake hands shake hands with the unemployed shake in one's boots shake in one's shoes shake it shake it up 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 one's hocks shake on it shakeout shake out shake over shaker shakerag 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 shakeworthy shaking rat Kawasaki shaky shook soul-shaking toshake tree shaking unshakable unshake what's shaking world-shaking antishake brace of shakes

Translations

Armenian: թափ տալ Armenian: թափահարել Azerbaijani: bulamaq Bulgarian: клатя Dutch: schudden Finnish: pudistaa French: secouer Georgian: გაქნევა German: schütteln Italian: scuotere la testa Khmer: ធ្វើក្បាលងីងើ Norwegian: riste Norwegian Bokmål: ryste Portuguese: sacudir a cabeça Portuguese: abanar Swedish: skaka (på)
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