Etimology
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 shaka”), 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.
verb
shake (third-person singular simple present shakes, present participle shaking, simple past shook or (rare) shaked or (slang) shooketh, past participle shaken or (dialectal) shook)
(transitive, ergative) To cause (something) to move rapidly in opposite directions alternatingly.
(transitive) To move (one's head) from side to side, especially to indicate refusal, reluctance, or disapproval.
(transitive) To move or remove by agitating; to throw off by a jolting or vibrating motion.
(transitive) To disturb emotionally; to shock.
(transitive) To lose, evade, or get rid of (something).
(intransitive) To move from side to side.
(intransitive, usually as "shake on") To shake hands.
(intransitive) To dance.
(transitive) To give a tremulous tone to; to trill.
(transitive, figurative) To threaten to overthrow.
(intransitive, figurative) To be agitated; to lose firmness.
Examples
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.
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.
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.
to shake fruit down from a tree
[…] Shake off the golden ſlumber of repoſe; […]
But indeed this Shame was a bold Villain; I could ſcarce ſhake him out of my company; [...]
Synonym: traumatize
Her father’s death shook her terribly.
He was shaken by what had happened.
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.
I can’t shake the feeling that I forgot something.
Synonyms: shiver, tremble
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.
OK, let’s shake on it.
She was shaking it on the dance floor.
to shake a note in music
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.
noun
shake (plural shakes)
The act of shaking or being shaken; tremulous or back-and-forth motion.
(usually in the plural) 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.
(US, slang, uncountable) An adulterant added to cocaine powder.
(building material) 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.
(informal) Instant, second. (Especially in two shakes.)
(nautical) One of the staves of a hogshead or barrel taken apart.
(music) A rapid alternation of a principal tone with another represented on the next degree of the staff above or below it; a trill.
(music) In singing, notes (usually high ones) sung vibrato.
A shook of staves and headings.
(UK, dialect) The redshank, so called from the nodding of its head while on the ground.
A shock or disturbance.
Examples
The cat gave the mouse a shake.
She replied in the negative, with a shake of her head.
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:
[…] 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.
“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.”
Empty casks are […] taken to pieces, and the staves closely packed up in a cylindrical form, constituting what are called shakes or packs
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.
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.