Definition of "shake"

shake

/ˈʃeɪk/

verb
third-person singular simple present shakes, present participle shaking, simple past shook or (rare) shaked or (slang) shooketh, past participle shaken or (dialectal) shook
1. (transitive, ergative) To cause (something) to move rapidly in opposite directions alternatingly.
  Quotations
  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.
  1963, Margery Allingham, “Meeting Point”, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, page 232
2. (transitive) To move (one's head) from side to side, especially to indicate refusal, reluctance, or disapproval.
  Quotations
  I became alſo a reproch vnto them: when they looked vpon me, they ſhaked their heads.
  1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], Psalms 109:25, column 1
3. (transitive) To move or remove by agitating; to throw off by a jolting or vibrating motion.
  Quotations
  […] Shake off the golden ſlumber of repoſe; […]
  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, [Act III, scene ii]
  But indeed this Shame was a bold Villain; I could ſcarce ſhake him out of my company; [...]
  1680, John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress from This World, to That which is to Come: , page 70
4. (transitive) To disturb emotionally; to shock.
  Quotations
  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.
  2013 July 20, “The attack of the MOOCs”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845
5. (transitive) To lose, evade, or get rid of (something).
6. (intransitive) To move from side to side.
  Quotations
  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.
  1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XXIII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company
7. (intransitive, usually as "shake on") To shake hands.
8. (intransitive) To dance.
9. (transitive) To give a tremulous tone to; to trill.
10. (transitive, figurative) To threaten to overthrow.
  Quotations
  The story of Ms. He and her mother began in the early 1960s, shortly before the Cultural Revolution shook China.
  2014 January 20, Didi Kirsten Tatlow, “‘She. Herself. Naked.': The Art of He Chengyao”, in The New York Times‎, archived from the original on 16 August 2023, Sinosphere‎
11. (intransitive, figurative) To be agitated; to lose firmness.
noun
plural shakes
1. The act of shaking or being shaken; tremulous or back-and-forth motion.
2. (usually in the plural) A twitch, a spasm, a tremor.
  Quotations
  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 TamburlainShall be my Regent, and remaine as King:
  c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, (please specify the page)
3. A milkshake.
4. A beverage made by adding ice cream to a (usually carbonated) drink; a float.
5. Shake cannabis, small, leafy fragments of cannabis that gather at the bottom of a bag of marijuana.
6. (US, slang, uncountable) An adulterant added to cocaine powder.
  Quotations
  […] 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.
  1989, Terry Williams, chapter 2, in The Cocaine Kids‎, Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, page 35
7. (building material) A thin shingle.
8. A crack or split between the growth rings in wood.
9. A fissure in rock or earth.
10. A basic wooden shingle made from split logs, traditionally used for roofing etc.
11. (informal) Instant, second. (Especially in two shakes.)
  Quotations
  “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.”
  1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter XXI, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins
12. (nautical) One of the staves of a hogshead or barrel taken apart.
  Quotations
  Empty casks are […] taken to pieces, and the staves closely packed up in a cylindrical form, constituting what are called shakes or packs
  1820, William Scoresby, An Account of the Arctic Regions
13. (music) A rapid alternation of a principal tone with another represented on the next degree of the staff above or below it; a trill.
14. (music) In singing, notes (usually high ones) sung vibrato.
  Quotations
  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.
  1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XIV, in Romance and Reality. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], page 263
15. A shook of staves and headings.
16. (UK, dialect) The redshank, so called from the nodding of its head while on the ground.
17. A shock or disturbance.
  Quotations
  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.
  1864, Elizabeth Gaskell, Cousin Phillis

Definition of "shake"

shake

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