What does "shake" mean?
The act of shaking or being shaken; tremulous or back-and-forth motion.
Shake
/ˈʃeɪk/ name, noun, verb, slang
name, noun, verb, slang ·Top 500 ·Elementary level
Meaning at a glance
- Primary sense: The act of shaking or being shaken; tremulous or back-and-forth motion.
- Grammar: shake is listed as name, noun, verb, slang.
- Nearest alternatives: shiver, tremble, abandon, abate.
- Useful contrasts: bobs, calm, hold steady.
- Usage evidence: They dance in circles to communicate a short distance, and shake their bodies and dart back and forth to indicate a longer distance.
How to use "shake"
- Start with the primary definition, then check the part of speech before placing the word in a sentence.
- Compare nearby synonyms to make sure "shake" carries the exact meaning, tone, and strength you need.
- Use the example sentence as a context check. If your sentence uses the word differently, confirm that the grammar still fits.
Meaning check
- Does the word fit the sentence's grammar?
- Does it match the intended tone rather than only the dictionary definition?
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- Is there enough surrounding context to prevent ambiguity?
Source and review context
This entry combines structured lexical data with WordToolSet review checks. Definitions, examples, synonyms, and usage notes may come from different source tables, so the page is designed to show evidence from more than one angle before you rely on "shake" in a final draft.
If a word has several senses, prefer the sense that matches your sentence's grammar and surrounding context. A correct definition can still be the wrong choice when the sentence needs a different register, emphasis, or level of specificity.
Before you rely on this definition
Read the first definition as a starting point, then check the example, synonyms, and part of speech before treating "shake" as the right word for your sentence.
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Compare nearby meanings
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Definition decision workflow
1. Identify the role
Check whether "shake" is acting as name, noun, verb, slang in your sentence. A definition is only useful when the grammar matches the way the word is being used.
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3. Confirm with context
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Final meaning check
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When the definition, synonym evidence, and example context point in the same direction, the word is usually a safer choice. When they conflict, revise the sentence or choose a clearer alternative.
Definitions
Noun
- 1 The act of shaking or being shaken; tremulous or back-and-forth motion. countable, uncountable
"The cat gave the mouse a shake."
- 2 causing to move repeatedly from side to side wordnet
- 3 A twitch, a spasm, a tremor. countable, plural-normally, uncountable
"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:"
- 4 a reflex motion caused by cold or fear or excitement wordnet
- 5 A dance popular in the 1960s in which the head, limbs, and body are shaken. countable, uncountable
"The snake did the frug, the monkey did the shake. The crowd, mostly young couples, tourists and kids, loved it."
Show 20 more definitions
- 6 grasping and shaking a person's hand (as to acknowledge an introduction or to agree on a contract) wordnet
- 7 A milkshake. countable, uncountable
- 8 a note that alternates rapidly with another note a semitone above it wordnet
- 9 A beverage made by adding ice cream to a (usually carbonated) drink; a float. countable, uncountable
- 10 frothy drink of milk and flavoring and sometimes fruit or ice cream wordnet
- 11 Shake cannabis, small, leafy fragments of cannabis that gather at the bottom of a bag of marijuana. countable, uncountable
- 12 building material used as siding or roofing wordnet
- 13 An adulterant added to cocaine powder. US, slang, uncountable
"[…] 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."
- 14 A thin shingle. countable, uncountable
- 15 A crack or split between the growth rings in wood. countable, uncountable
- 16 A fissure in rock or earth. countable, uncountable
- 17 A basic wooden shingle made from split logs, traditionally used for roofing etc. countable, uncountable
- 18 Instant, second. (Especially in two shakes.) countable, informal, uncountable
"“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.”"
- 19 One of the staves of a hogshead or barrel taken apart. countable, uncountable
"Empty casks are[…]taken to pieces, and the staves closely packed up in a cylindrical form, constituting what are called shakes or packs"
- 20 A rapid alternation of a principal tone with another represented on the next degree of the staff above or below it; a trill. countable, uncountable
- 21 In singing, notes (usually high ones) sung vibrato. countable, uncountable
"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."
- 22 A shook of staves and headings. countable, uncountable
- 23 The redshank, so called from the nodding of its head while on the ground. UK, countable, dialectal, uncountable
- 24 A shock or disturbance. countable, uncountable
"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."
- 25 An informal unit of time equal to 10 nanoseconds. countable, historical, uncountable
"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
- 1 To cause (something) to move rapidly in opposite directions alternatingly. ergative, transitive
"The earthquake shook the building."
- 2 move with or as if with a tremor wordnet
- 3 To move (one's head) from side to side, especially to indicate refusal, reluctance, or disapproval. transitive
"Shaking his head, he kept repeating “No, no, no”."
- 4 undermine or cause to waver wordnet
- 5 To move or remove by agitating; to throw off by a jolting or vibrating motion. transitive
"to shake fruit down from a tree"
Show 15 more definitions
- 6 bring to a specified condition by or as if by shaking wordnet
- 7 To disturb emotionally; to shock. transitive
"Her father’s death shook her terribly."
- 8 shake (a body part) to communicate a greeting, feeling, or cognitive state wordnet
- 9 To lose, evade, or get rid of (something). idiomatic, transitive
"I can’t shake the feeling that I forgot something."
- 10 stir the feelings, emotions, or peace of wordnet
- 11 To move from side to side. intransitive
"She shook with grief."
- 12 move back and forth or sideways wordnet
- 13 To shake hands. intransitive, usually
"OK, let’s shake on it."
- 14 move or cause to move back and forth wordnet
- 15 To dance. intransitive
"She was shaking it on the dance floor."
- 16 shake or vibrate rapidly and intensively wordnet
- 17 To give a tremulous tone to; to trill. transitive
"to shake a note in music"
- 18 get rid of wordnet
- 19 To threaten to overthrow. figuratively, transitive
"The experience shook my religious belief."
- 20 To be agitated; to lose firmness. figuratively, intransitive
Proper Noun
- 1 A surname.
Example
"They dance in circles to communicate a short distance, and shake their bodies and dart back and forth to indicate a longer distance."
Common questions
What is a synonym for "shake"?
Common synonyms include: shiver, tremble, abandon, abate, accost, address.
How do you use "shake" in a sentence?
They dance in circles to communicate a short distance, and shake their bodies and dart back and forth to indicate a longer distance.
How do you pronounce "shake"?
Pronounced /ˈʃeɪk/.
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.