shake

name

1. A surname.

noun

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.

1. The act of shaking or being shaken; tremulous or back-and-forth motion.

   “The cat gave the mouse a shake.”

   “She replied in the negative, with a shake of her head.”

2. A twitch, a spasm, a tremor.

   “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 Tamburlain Shall be my Regent, and remaine as King:”

3. A dance popular in the 1960s in which the head, limbs, and body are shaken.

   “The snake did the frug, the monkey did the shake. The crowd, mostly young couples, tourists and kids, loved it.”

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.

   “[…] 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.”

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 A type of wooden shingle originally made from split timber.

    “There is a comet's tail of spilled cream across the cedar shakes and he will have to climb down for the turpentine.”

11. Instant, second. (Especially in two shakes.)

    ““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.””

12. One of the staves of a hogshead or barrel taken apart.

    “Empty casks are[…]taken to pieces, and the staves closely packed up in a cylindrical form, constituting what are called shakes or packs”

13. A rapid alternation of a principal tone with another represented on the next degree of the staff above or below it; a trill.
14. In singing, notes (usually high ones) sung vibrato.

    “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.”

15. A shook of staves and headings.
16. The redshank, so called from the nodding of its head while on the ground.
17. A shock or disturbance.

    “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.”

18. An informal unit of time equal to 10 nanoseconds.

    “Most of the fission energy was released in the last few generations, so if the device blew itself apart before about fifty-seven shakes had elapsed, […]”

verb

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.

1. 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.”

2. 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”.”

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

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

   “to shake fruit down from a tree”

   “[…]Shake off the golden ſlumber of repoſe;[…]”

4. To disturb emotionally; to shock.

   “Her father’s death shook her terribly.”

   “He was shaken by what had happened.”

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

   “I can’t shake the feeling that I forgot something.”

6. To move from side to side.

   “She shook with grief.”

   “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. To shake hands.

   “OK, let’s shake on it.”

8. 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”

10. To threaten to overthrow.

    “The experience shook my religious belief.”

    “The story of Ms. He and her mother began in the early 1960s, shortly before the Cultural Revolution shook China.”

11. To be agitated; to lose firmness.