Shakes

How to spell shakes

6 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce shakes

What does shakes mean?

1. verbMoves something quickly back and forth, or trembles (third-person singular).
2. nounA fit of uncontrollable trembling, especially from cold, fear, or withdrawal.
3. nounThick blended drinks made from milk, ice cream, and flavouring.

Shakes in a sentence

• verb

  She always shakes the bottle before pouring the dressing.

• noun

  By the third day without nicotine he had the shakes quite badly.

• noun

  The diner is famous for its chocolate and strawberry shakes.

• verb

  His hand shakes slightly whenever he drinks too much coffee.

• noun

  The cold water gave the swimmers a serious case of the shakes.

• noun

  After the match the whole team ordered shakes at the counter.

Where does shakes come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is the plural and third-person form of 'shake', which descends from the Old English verb sceacan, meaning to move rapidly back and forth, to brandish, or even to flee swiftly away. That Old English word grew from a shared Germanic root, with relatives in Old Norse skaka and Middle Dutch schaken, all carrying the sense of vigorous to-and-fro motion. Over the centuries the spelling settled with the silent final 'e' of 'shake', which is then simply followed by '-s', so the trap for writers is remembering that the 'e' disappears in no other form here yet the cluster stays 'kes' rather than the tempting 'x' sound it makes aloud. As a noun, 'the shakes' for a fit of trembling is recorded from the early modern period, and the breezy 'milkshakes' sense is a much later American innovation of the late nineteenth century. The everyday gesture of agreement, the handshake, keeps the very same ancient root alive.

How the word is built

• shake (from Old English sceacan: to move quickly to and fro)
• -s (plural noun / third-person singular verb ending)