SHAKING • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Shaking

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/ʃˈeɪkɪŋ/ Listen

verb

Shake v. t. (past shook; past part. shaken, obs. shook; pres. part. shaking)

1.

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. "As a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind." "Ascend my chariot; guide the rapid wheels That shake heaven's basis."

2.

Fig.: To move from firmness; to weaken the stability of; to cause to waver; to impair the resolution of. "When his doctrines grew too strong to be shook by his enemies, they persecuted his reputation." "Thy equal fear that my firm faith and love Can by his fraud be shaken or seduced."

3.

(Mus.) To give a tremulous tone to; to trill; as, to shake a note in music.

4.

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.; as, to shake fruit down from a tree. "Shake off the golden slumber of repose." "'Tis our fast intent To shake all cares and business from our age." "I could scarcely shake him out of my company."

To shake a cask (Naut.), to knock a cask to pieces and pack the staves.

To shake hands, to perform the customary act of civility by clasping and moving hands, as an expression of greeting, farewell, good will, agreement, etc.

To shake out a reef (Naut.), to untile the reef points and spread more canvas.

To shake the bells. See under Bell.

To shake the sails (Naut.), to luff up in the wind, causing the sails to shiver.

Shake v. i. (past shook; past part. shaken, obs. shook; pres. part. shaking) To be agitated with a waving or vibratory motion; to tremble; to shiver; to quake; to totter. "Under his burning wheels The steadfast empyrean shook throughout, All but the throne itself of God." "What danger? Who 's that that shakes behind there?"

Shaking piece, a name given by butchers to the piece of beef cut from the under side of the neck.

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Etymology of 'Shaking'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Shaking" Quotes from Famous Books

... this mighty host set forth upon its march an earthquake shook the city. The inhabitants, awakened by the shaking of the walls and rocking of the towers, fled to the courts and squares, fearing to be overwhelmed by the ruins of their dwellings. The earthquake was most violent in the quarter of the royal residence, the site of the ancient palace of the Moorish kings. Many looked upon this ...

— Chronicle of the Conquest of Granada • Washington Irving

... a drink?" She turned to the negro:"Go to the spring-house and bring some water."The lad moved away, smiling to himself and shaking his head. ...

— The Choir Invisible • James Lane Allen

... idle," said Dan, shaking his head as gravely as Gran'ther Wattles himself. "Busy thyself with the clams, and Satan will have less chance at thy idle hands, and thy idle ...

— The Puritan Twins • Lucy Fitch Perkins

... slightest pretence to personal prowess in the narrative. Our judgment is always too much at the mercy of our likes and dislikes. He did indeed mention himself, but only to say that once in the street of a village he saw the horse at some distance with a child in his teeth shaking him like a terrier with a rat. He ran, he said, but was too far off. Ere he was half-way, the horse's groom, who was the only man with any power over the brute, had come up and secured him—though too late ...

— Weighed and Wanting • George MacDonald

... vaunting Treason caught, And Fear's pale minions, wrapped in sorrow's pall. Great Freedom dead! In God-like power, 'Tis Freedom rules e'en this dread hour, And guides the tempest 'neath whose blows we fall. Yea! War and Anarchy Discord and Slavery, And drunken Death, and all these tears Shaking our hearts with unaccustomed fears— E'en these are Freedom, waiting to arise In glad eternal triumph from ...

— The Continental Monthly, Vol. III, No. V, May, 1863 - Devoted to Literature and National Policy • Various

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