shake

Meanings

Verb

• To cause (something) to move rapidly in opposite directions alternatingly.
• To move (one's head) from side to side, especially to indicate refusal, reluctance or disapproval.
• To move or remove by agitating; to throw off by a jolting or vibrating motion.
• To disturb emotionally; to shock.
• To lose, evade, or get rid of (something).
• To move from side to side.
• To shake hands.
• To dance.
• To give a tremulous tone to; to trill.
• To threaten to overthrow.
• To be agitated; to lose firmness.

Noun

• The act of shaking or being shaken; tremulous or back-and-forth motion.
• A twitch, a spasm, a tremor.
• A milkshake.
• A beverage made by adding ice cream to a (usually carbonated) drink; a float.
• Shake cannabis, small, leafy fragments of cannabis that gather at the bottom of a bag of marijuana.
• An adulterant added to cocaine powder.
• A thin shingle.
• A crack or split between the growth rings in wood.
• A fissure in rock or earth.
• A basic wooden shingle made from split logs, traditionally used for roofing etc.
• Instant, second. (Especially in two shakes.)
• One of the staves of a hogshead or barrel taken apart.
• A rapid alternation of a principal tone with another represented on the next degree of the staff above or below it; a trill.
• In singing, notes (usually high ones) sung vibrato.
• A shook of staves and headings.
• The redshank, so called from the nodding of its head while on the ground.
• A shock or disturbance.

Origin

• From Middle English schaken, from Old English sċeacan, sċacan, from Proto-West Germanic *skakan, from Proto-Germanic *skakaną, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)keg-, *(s)kek-. Cognate with Scots schake, schack, West Frisian schaekje, Dutch schaken, Low German schaken and schacken, Norwegian Nynorsk skaka, Swedish skaka, Dutch schokken, Russian скака́ть. More at shock.