shake
verb · noun
Simple meaning
Move or cause to move back and forth.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
shaykIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈʃeɪk
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
verb
Move or cause to move back and forth
Move with or as if with a tremor
transitiveergative
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.
noun
The act of shaking or being shaken; tremulous or back-and-forth motion.
usually in the plural
A twitch, a spasm, a tremor.
Shake cannabis, small, leafy fragments of cannabis that gather at the bottom of a bag of marijuana.
A beverage made by adding ice cream to a (usually carbonated) drink; a float.
A crack or split between the growth rings in wood.
A basic wooden shingle made from split logs, traditionally used for roofing etc.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Move or cause to move back and forth
Used this way, shake is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use shake
- “I couldn't shake the car that was following me.”verb
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Similar Words, What’s the Difference?
Close in meaning, but not always interchangeable.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
The act of causing something to move up and down (or back and forth) with quick movements.
A person who wields power and influence.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Take someone's hands and shake them as a gesture of greeting or congratulation.
Get rid of.
The imposition of a new organization.
A degenerative disorder of the central nervous system characterized by tremor and impaired muscular coordination.
A shaker for mixing cocktails.
Huge herbivorous dinosaur of the Cretaceous found in western North America.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.