Find your perfect word!

Definition shake

Etymology

From Middle English schaken, from Old English s?eacan, s?acan (“to shake”). from Proto-Germanic *skakan? (“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”), Norwegian Nynorsk skaka (“to shake”), Swedish skaka (“to shake”), Dutch schokken (“to shake, shock”), Russian ???????? (skakát?, “to jump”). More at shock.

Verb

shake (third-person singular simple present shakes, present participle shaking, simple past shook or (rare) shaked, past participle shaken or (dialectal) shook)

1. (transitive, ergative) To cause (something) to move rapidly in opposite directions alternatingly.
2. (transitive) To move (one's head) from side to side, especially to indicate refusal, reluctance, or disapproval.