shake

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. v. To cause to move to and fro with jerky movements.
2. v. To cause to quiver, tremble, vibrate, or rock.
3. v. To cause to lose stability or waver: a crisis that shook my deepest beliefs.
4. v. To remove or dislodge by jerky movements: shook the dust from the cushions.
5. v. To bring to a specified condition by or as if by shaking: "It is not easy to shake one's heart free of the impression” ( John Middleton Murry).
6. v. Slang To get rid of: couldn't shake the man who was following us.
7. v. To disturb or agitate; unnerve: She was shaken by the news of the disaster.
8. v. To brandish or wave, especially in anger: shake one's fist.
9. v. To clasp (hands) in greeting or leave-taking or as a sign of agreement.
10. v. Music To trill (a note).
11. v. Games To rattle and mix (dice) before casting.
12. v. To move to and fro in short, irregular, often jerky movements.
13. v. To tremble, as from cold or in anger.
14. v. To be unsteady; totter or waver.
15. v. To move something vigorously up and down or from side to side, as in mixing.
16. v. Music To trill.
17. v. To shake hands: Let's shake on it.
18. n. The act of shaking.
19. n. A trembling or quivering movement.
20. n. Informal An earthquake.
21. n. A fissure in rock.
22. n. A crack in timber caused by wind or frost.
23. n. Informal A moment or instant; a trice: I'll do it in a shake.
24. n. Music A trill.
25. n. See milk shake.
26. n. A beverage in which the ingredients are mixed by shaking.
27. n. A rough shingle used to cover rustic buildings, such as barns: cedar shakes.
28. n. Informal Uncontrollable trembling, as in a person who is cold, frightened, feverish, or ill. Often used with the: was suffering from a bad case of the shakes.
29. n. Slang A bargain or deal: getting a fair shake.
30. shake down Slang To extort money from.
31. shake down Slang To make a thorough search of: shook down the prisoners' cells for hidden weapons.
32. shake down To subject (a new ship or aircraft) to shakedown testing.
33. shake down To become acclimated or accustomed, as to a new environment or a new job.
34. shake off To free oneself of; get rid of: We shook off our fears.
35. shake up To upset by or as if by a physical jolt or shock: was badly shaken up by the accident.
36. shake up To subject to a drastic rearrangement or reorganization: new management bent on shaking up the company.
37. idiom. give (someone) the shake Slang To escape from or get rid of: We managed to give our pursuers the shake.
38. idiom. no great shakes Slang Unexceptional; ordinary: "stepping in between the victim and the bully, even when the victim happens to be no great shakes” ( Louis Auchincloss).
39. idiom. shake a leg Informal To dance.
40. idiom. shake a leg Informal To move quickly; hurry up.
41. idiom. shake (another's) tree Slang To arouse to action or reaction; disturb: "[He] so shook Hollywood's tree that . . . all manner of . . . people called me unsolicited to itemize his mistakes or praise his courage” ( Tina Brown).
42. idiom. shake a stick at Slang To point out, designate, or name: "All of a sudden there came into being a vast conservative infrastructure: think-tanks . . . and more foundations than you could shake a stick at” ( National Review).

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. To cause to move with quick vibrations; move or sway with a rapid jolting, jerking, or vibratory motion; cause to tremble, quiver, or shiver; agitate: as, to shake a carpet; the wind shakes the trees; the explosion shook the house: to shake one's fist at another; to shake one's head as in displeasure or negation.
2. To loosen, unfasten, remove, throw off or aside, expel, dispel, or get rid of, by a jolting, jerking, or abrupt vibrating action or motion, or by rough or vigorous measures: generally with away, down, off, out, up, etc.: as, to shake off drowsiness; to shake out a reef in a sail; also, in colloquial use, absolutely: as, to shake a bore.
3. To weaken or impair in any respect; make less firm, sure, certain, solid, stable, or courageous; impair the standing, force, or character of; cause to waver or doubt: as, a searching cross-examination failed to shake the testimony of the witness.
4. To agitate or disturb; rouse: sometimes with up.
5. To give a tremulous sound to; trill: as, to shake a note in music.
6. To steal.
7. To come to an agreement; agree fully: as, to shake hands over a bargain.
8. To shake or jar thoroughly or in such a way as to damage or impair; shock: us, he was badly shaken up in the collision.
9. To upbraid; berate.
10. To be agitated with a waving or vibratory motion; tremble; shiver; quake: as, a tree shakes with the wind; the house shook in the tempest.
11. To fall; jump.
12. To go quickly; hasten.
13. In music, to use shakes or trills; perform a shake or trill; trill.
14. To steal.
15. To shake hands: usually in the imperative: as, shake, stranger.
16. Synonyms Swing, Roll, etc. See rock.
17. n. A rapid jolt or jerk one way and then the other; an abrupt wavering or vibrating motion: as, give it a shake; a shake of the head.
18. n. A shock or concussion; especially, a shock that disarranges or impairs; rude or violent attack or treatment.
19. n. A tremor; a quaver; a shiver.
20. n. A trembling-fit; a chill; specifically, in the plural and with the definite article, the shakes, ague; intermittent fever; also, delirium tremens.
21. n. In music, a melodic embellishment consisting of the rapid alternation of a principal tone with a tone one degree above it; a trill: indicated by the mark transitive, with or without the sign . According to modern usage, the principal tone is sounded first, and receives the accent throughout; but in old music the reverse was the case. If the subsidiary tone is chromatically altered, this is indicated by a sharp or a flat added to the sign of the shake. A shake is nsually concluded with a turn, and often preceded by a prefix of one or more tones; in the latter case it is said to be prepared. A shake occurring in two or three voice-parts at once is called double or triple. A succession of shakes is called a chain. A shake inserted in the midst of a rapid or flowing melody is called passing.
22. n. A brief moment; an instant: as, to do a thing in a couple or brace of shakes, or in the shake of a lamb's tail (that is, to do it immediately).
23. n. A crack or fissure in timber, produced during growth by strain of wind, sudden changes of temperature, or causes not well determined, or formed during seasoning. Nearly all exogenous woods are in some degree subject to this defect, which appears in several forms. Heart shake is a fissure through the center or pith, slight or serious, in its simplest form running the length of the trunk in one plane, in some specimens twisted. Another cleft may cross at right angles. Star-shake consists of radial fissures, sometimes even reaching the circumference. Cup-shake consists of clefts between the concentric layers, occurring most often near the root. All these shakes are commonly called wind-shakes.
24. n. A fissure in the earth.
25. n. A long shingle or stave: same as clapboard, 2.
26. n. In printing,a blurred or doubled print made by a shaking or moving of the sheet under impression.
27. n. The redshank, Totanus calidris: so called from its constant nodding or bobbing of the body. See cut under redshank.

Wiktionary

1. v. transitive, ergative To cause (something) to move rapidly in opposite directions alternatingly.
2. v. transitive To move (one's head) from side to side, especially to indicate a negative.
3. v. transitive To disturb emotionally; to shock.
4. v. transitive To lose, evade, or get rid of (something).
5. v. intransitive To move from side to side.
6. v. intransitive To shake hands.
7. v. intransitive To dance.
8. n. The act of shaking something.
9. n. A milkshake.
10. n. A beverage made by adding ice cream to a (usually carbonated) drink; a float.
11. n. Shake cannabis, small, leafy fragments of cannabis that gather at the bottom of a bag of marijuana.
12. n. building material A thin shingle.
13. n. A crack or split between the growth rings in wood.
14. n. informal Instant, second. (Esp. in two shakes.)

GNU Webster's 1913

1. obs. p. p. of shake.
2. v. To cause to move with quick or violent vibrations; to move rapidly one way and the other; to make to tremble or shiver; to agitate.
3. v. Fig.: To move from firmness; to weaken the stability of; to cause to waver; to impair the resolution of.
4. v. (Mus.) To give a tremulous tone to; to trill.
5. v. To move or remove by agitating; to throw off by a jolting or vibrating motion; to rid one's self of; -- generally with an adverb, as off, out, etc..
6. v. To be agitated with a waving or vibratory motion; to tremble; to shiver; to quake; to totter.
7. n. The act or result of shaking; a vacillating or wavering motion; a rapid motion one way and other; a trembling, quaking, or shivering; agitation.
8. n. A fissure or crack in timber, caused by its being dried too suddenly.
9. n. A fissure in rock or earth.
10. n. (Mus.) A rapid alternation of a principal tone with another represented on the next degree of the staff above or below it; a trill.
11. n. (Naut.) One of the staves of a hogshead or barrel taken apart.
12. n. A shook of staves and headings.
13. n. (Zoöl.), Prov. Eng. The redshank; -- so called from the nodding of its head while on the ground.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. causing to move repeatedly from side to side
2. n. grasping and shaking a person's hand (as to acknowledge an introduction or to agree on a contract)
3. v. get rid of
4. n. frothy drink of milk and flavoring and sometimes fruit or ice cream
5. v. move with or as if with a tremor
6. v. move or cause to move back and forth
7. v. stir the feelings, emotions, or peace of
8. v. shake (a body part) to communicate a greeting, feeling, or cognitive state
9. n. building material used as siding or roofing
10. n. a note that alternates rapidly with another note a semitone above it
11. v. shake or vibrate rapidly and intensively
12. v. move back and forth or sideways
13. n. a reflex motion caused by cold or fear or excitement
14. v. bring to a specified condition by or as if by shaking
15. v. undermine or cause to waver