shake

From Middle English schaken, from Old English sċeacan, sċacan (“to shake”). 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”), Norwegian Nynorsk skaka (“to shake”), Swedish skaka (“to shake”), Dutch schokken (“to shake, shock”), Russian скака́ть (skakátʹ, “to jump”). More at shock.

• IPA^(key): /ˈʃeɪk/

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• Rhymes: -eɪk
• Homophones: sheik, sheikh (one pronunciation)

shake (third-person singular simple present shakes, present participle shaking, simple past shook or (rare) shaked, past participle shaken or (dialectal) shook)

1. (transitive, ergative) To 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.

   • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 19, in The China Governess‎:

     Meanwhile Nanny Broome was recovering from her initial panic and 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.

2. (transitive) To move (one's head) from side to side, especially to indicate refusal, reluctance, or disapproval.

   Shaking his head, he kept repeating "No, no, no".

   1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), imprinted at London: By Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981, Psalms 109:25:

   I became also a reproch vnto them: when they looked vpon me, they shaked their heads.

3. (transitive) To move or remove by agitating; to throw off by a jolting or vibrating motion.

   to shake fruit down from a tree

   • (Can we date this quote?) William Shakespeare

     Shake off the golden slumber of repose.

   • (Can we date this quote?) John Bunyan

     I could scarcely shake him out of my company.

4. (transitive) To disturb emotionally; to shock.

   her father's death shook her terribly;  he was shaken by what had happened

   w:Elvis Presley, w:All Shook Up

   A well'a bless my soul

   What'sa wrong with me?

   I'm itchin' like a man in a fuzzy tree

   My friends say I'm actin' wild as a bug

   I'm in love

   I'm all shook up

   • 2013 July 20, “The attack of the MOOCs”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845:

     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.

5. (transitive) To lose, evade, or get rid of (something).

   I can't shake the feeling that I forgot something.

6. (intransitive) To move from side to side.

   She shook with grief.

   • 1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 23, in The Mirror and the Lamp:

     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.

7. (intransitive, usually as "shake on") To shake hands.

   OK, let's shake on it.

8. (intransitive) To dance.

   She was shaking it on the dance floor.

9. To give a tremulous tone to; to trill.

   to shake a note in music

shake (plural shakes)

1. The act of shaking something.

   The cat gave the mouse a shake.

2. A milkshake.
3. A beverage made by adding ice cream to a (usually carbonated) drink; a float.
4. Shake cannabis, small, leafy fragments of cannabis that gather at the bottom of a bag of marijuana.
5. (building material) A thin shingle.
6. A crack or split between the growth rings in wood.
7. A fissure in rock or earth.
8. A basic wooden shingle made from split logs, traditionally used for roofing etc.
9. (informal) Instant, second. (Especially in two shakes.)
   • 1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter XXI, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, OCLC 1227855:

     “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.”

10. (nautical) One of the staves of a hogshead or barrel taken apart.

    (Can we find and add a quotation of Totten to this entry?)

11. (music) A rapid alternation of a principal tone with another represented on the next degree of the staff above or below it; a trill.
12. A shook of staves and headings.

    (Can we find and add a quotation of Knight to this entry?)

13. (Britain, dialectal) The redshank, so called from the nodding of its head while on the ground.

• Hakes, hakes

shake

1. Rōmaji transcription of しゃけ
2. Rōmaji transcription of シャケ

shake m (plural shakes)

1. shake (drink)