adj ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Adjective

1. 1
   Shaking or trembling.

   "a shaky spot in a marsh"

2. 2
   Nervous, anxious.

   "He’s a nice guy but when he talks to me, he acts shaky."

3. 3
   Full of shakes or cracks; cracked.

   "shaky timber"

4. 4
   Easily shaken; tottering; unsound.

   "a shaky constitution"

5. 5
   Wavering; undecided.

Adjective

1. 1
   not secure; beset with difficulties wordnet
2. 2
   inclined to shake as from weakness or defect wordnet
3. 3
   vibrating slightly and irregularly; as e.g. with fear or cold or like the leaves of an aspen in a breeze wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

insecureprecariousricketyshiveringadriftafloat

Example

More examples

"The legs of the table are shaky."

Etymology

From shake + -y.

Related phrases

on shaky ground

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.