▪ I. shaking, vbl. n.
(ˈʃeɪkɪŋ)
[-ing1.]
1. a. The action of the verb shake, in any sense.
| c 1380 Wyclif Sel. Eng. Wks. III. 313 Bi here newe dampnacion þat þei maden at London in þe erþe schakyng. c 1450 J. Capgrave Life St. Gilbert xxiv. 98 All þe toknes [of the fever] wer come, as schakyng, akyng of þe hed and swech oþir. 1575 Gascoigne Kenelworth ii. ii. Wks. 1910 II. 113 It was the shaking of some leafe. 1586 T. B. La Primaud. Fr. Acad. i. 326 Few there are, who, in great overthwarts and shakings of fortune, have harts sufficiently staied to practise..that which they commend. 1685 tr. St. Evremond's Mixt Ess. 24 With their warblings and shakings, they [the Spaniards] seem to mind nothing in their singing, but to contend with Nightingales. 1782 J. Adams Fam. Lett. (1876) 404 But shaking on horseback guards pretty well against it. 1891 Earl Lytton Lett. (1906) II. 430 The shaking I got on my way from London to Paris made last Sunday a terribly painful one to me. 1899 R. Whiteing No. 5 John St. 157 The great need of the age is a good sound shaking, to get the nonsense out. |
† b. The gathering, harvesting, falling or shedding (of fruit or grain).
lit. and
fig. Obs.| 1623 in Foster Eng. Factories Ind. (1908) II. 237 These fellowes are growne ripe; I hope wee shall have the shakinge of them. 1637 MS. Acc. St. John's Hosp., Canterb., Payd for shakinge of our frute 0 2 0. 1658 [see shaking-time in 4]. c 1750 MS. relating to Suffolk Manors, No person shall in the time of Shaking..keep any drove cattle in the fields. |
c. With
advs.| c 1440 Promp. Parv. 443/2 Schakynge a-wey, excussio. 1613 Hieron Back-parts Jehovah Serm. (1614) 180 A shaking off of that due obedience we owe vnto him. 1683 Moxon Mech. Exerc., Printing xii. xix. 172 The Break made by the Shaking out of the Mettal. 1866 W. Collins Armadale ii. vii, A good shaking-up is just the thing for you, after being so long indoors. 1897 H. A. Jones Case Rebell. Susan i. 19, I allow every married couple twelve months for what I call the shaking-down process. 1926 J. S. Huxley Ess. in Pop. Sci. ix. 118 Taking them [sc. Infusoria] on a railway journey to give them a good shaking-up. 1928 Daily Mail 9 Aug. 12/4 The best opinion is that a thorough shaking-out will do much good, but there is no need for alarm. 1958 L. Durrell Mountolive vi. 134 Only Pursewarden had not put in an appearance... Mountolive planned to give him a shaking-up at the first opportunity. |
† d. the shaking of the sheets: the name of a dance (in the 16–17th c. very often used jocularly for sexual intercourse).
Obs.| ? c 1570 Misogonus ii. iv. 272 To that daunce of all other I see he is bent. S{supr}. Faythe no I had rather haue shakinge oth shetes. 1589 Pappe w. Hatchet Lyly's Wks. 1902 III. 411 O tis his best daunce next shaking of the sheetes. 1633 Rowley Match at Midn. iii. i, Thee and I shall dance the shaking of the sheetes together. 1654 Gayton Pleas. Notes i. vii. 25 He knew not what a dance the Don would lead him, before he return'd to the shaking of the sheets, with his Joan Gutierez. |
| transf. 16.. Ballad, Doleful Dance & Song of Death i, Can you dance the shaking of the Sheets, a Dance that every one must do?.. Make ready then your winding sheet. 1604 Meeting of Gallants at Ordinarie C 3, But this youngster daunced the shaking of one sheet [i.e. died] within fewe dayes after. |
2. A disease in sheep and swine (see
quot. a 1722). Also the ague. Chiefly in plural.
| 1642 Fuller Holy & Prof. St. v. xi. 401 Being good Physick for the sheep to keep them from the Shakings. a 1722 Lisle Husb. (1757) 339 Some years the sheep will be apt to be taken with a disease they call the shaking..: it is a weakness which seizes their hinder quarters, so that they cannot rise up when they are down. 1736 Bailey Househ. Dict. s.v. Tremour, The tremour or shaking in Swine. 1877 Holderness Gloss., Shakkins, the ague. ‘Thoo dodhers as if thoo'd getten shakkins.’ |
3. concr. That which is shaken off, out, down, etc.
Naut. (see
quots. 1867–86). Also with
advs. down,
off,
out. Chiefly in plural.
| 1382 Wyclif Isa. xvii. 6 As the shaking out of the oile berie. 1388 Ibid., As the schakyng doun of the fruyt of olyue tre. 1682 J. Houghton's Coll. Lett. Husb. etc. No. 7 I. 70 The Shakings of the Cloth. 1754 P. H. Hiberniad iv. 29 Luxuriant Congreve (the..Shakings-off of whose Pen, would invigorate twenty of our late spiritless miscall'd Comedies). 1839 Nautical Mag. 726 [Heading of miscellaneous items of news.] Shakings. 1867 Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., Shakings, refuse of cordage, canvas, &c., used for making oakum, paper, &c. 1886 Tinsley's Mag. Sept. 287 Shakings are the sweepings of the deck gathered together after the day's work is done. Ibid., ‘Mere shakings’ is a term used by seamen to express worthless men. |
4. attrib. and
Comb., as
shaking time; also in the names of machines used for agitating materials, as
shaking barrel, also
shaking frame,
shaking table (Knight
Dict. Mech. 1875);
shaking cure,
machine (see
quots.);
shaking stop, the tremolo organ stop.
| 1884 B'ham Daily Post 23 Feb. 2/4 Boot-rivet Machines, Spring Punches, *Shaking Barrel. |
| 1898 Syd. Soc. Lex., *Shaking cure, the treatment of certain nervous diseases, such as paralysis agitans, by means of a vibrating arm⁓chair. |
| 1850 Holtzapffel Turning III. 1090 Rumble or *Shaking Machine. This is a contrivance sometimes used for polishing small articles principally by their attrition against each other. |
| 1659 C. Simpson Division-Violist i. 9 Some also affect a kind of Shake or Tremble with the Bow, like the *shaking Stop of an Organ. 1665 in Hopkins Organ (1845) Hist. 52 One Shaking Stopp. |
| 1658 W. Gurnall Chr. in Arm. verse 14 xii. ii. 284 Away they runne with their enjoyments,..like hogges in *shaking time. 1706 Phillips (ed. Kersey), Shacking-time, the Season when Mast is ripe. |
▪ II. shaking, ppl. a. (
ˈʃeɪkɪŋ)
[f. shake v. + -ing2.] a. In the senses of the verb. Of a bog, morass, etc.: Quaking.
shaking stone, a rocking stone.
| a 1225 Ancr. R. 60 [Lechery] mid schekinde word ȝiueð speres wunden. c 1380 Wyclif Wks. (1880) 210 Þei..suffre pore men haue nakid sidis & schakynge lippis & hondis for cold. 1578 J. Derricke Image Irel. (1581) D iij b, And brought from Boggs to champion ground,..Yet doe thei loke to shaking boggs. 1660 R. May Accompl. Cook (1665) 180 To make a Shaking Pudding. 1662 Ray Itin. iii. Sel. Rem. (1760) 240 Here lies a Stone, called the shaking Stone. 1763 Mills Pract. Husb. I. 137 Mr. Eliot's contrivance to drain a piece of shaking meadow, as he calls it. 1773 Goldsm. Stoops to Conq. ii, Item..a Florentine, a shaking pudding. 1842 S. Lover Handy Andy xxiii, The cat made for a shaking bog—the loneliest place in the whole country. 1889 P. H. Emerson Eng. Idyls 133 Holding their shaking sides. |
b. Of a disease: Characterized by a tremulous agitation of the head or limbs.
| 1528 Paynell Salerne's Regim. Y ij, White pepper is holsome for a shakynge feuer. 1615 Crooke Body of Man 401 The disease called Tremor, or the shaking palsie. 1888 [see Parkinson1]. 1905 Brit. Med. Jrnl. 25 Feb. 406/1 He had a shaking chill followed by a sweat. 1955 [see Parkinson1]. |
| transf. 1595 Shakes. John ii. i. 228 Bulletts wrapt in fire To make a shaking feuer in your walles. |
c. Shaking Quaker = shaker 4 b.
| 1784 Mass. Spy 1 Jan., in R. H. Thornton Amer. Gloss. (1912), The people in the Western part of this State, who stile themselves Shaking Quakers. 1839 Marryat Diary Amer. Ser. i. I. 114, I had intended to..proceed from thence to New Lebanon to visit the Shaking Quakers. |
d. quasi-adv.| 1890 ‘R. Boldrewood’ Col. Reformer (1891) 240 What a lot of rattling bullocks, shaking fat too. |
Hence
ˈshakingly adv.| 1889 Cornhill Mag. Oct. 438 ‘Tell her, please, Bryan’, I say, shakingly. |