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Webster 1913 Edition

Quake

Quake

(kwāk)
,
Verb.
I.
[
imp. & p. p.
Quaked
(kwākt)
;
p. pr. & vb. n.
Quaking
.]
[AS.
cwacian
; cf. G.
quackeln
. Cf.
Quagmire
.]
1.
To be agitated with quick, short motions continually repeated; to shake with fear, cold, etc.; to shudder; to tremble.
“Quaking for dread.”
Chaucer.
She stood
quaking
like the partridge on which the hawk is ready to seize.
Sir P. Sidney.
2.
To shake, vibrate, or quiver, either from not being solid, as soft, wet land, or from violent convulsion of any kind;
as, the earth
quakes
; the mountains
quake
.
“ Over quaking bogs.”
Macaulay.

Quake

,
Verb.
T.
[Cf. AS.
cweccan
to move, shake. See
Quake
,
Verb.
T.
]
To cause to quake.
[Obs.]
Shak.

Quake

(kwāk)
,
Noun.
1.
A tremulous agitation; a quick vibratory movement; a shudder; a quivering.

Webster 1828 Edition

Quake

QUAKE

, v.i.
1.
To shake; to tremble; to be agitated with quick but short motions continually repeated; to shudder. Thus we say, a person quakes with fear or terror, or with cold. Heb. 12.
2.
To shake with violent convulsions, as well as with trembling; as, the earth quakes; the mountains quake. Neh. 1.
3.
To shake, tremble or move, as the earth under the feet; as the quaking mud.

QUAKE

,
Verb.
T.
To frighten; to throw into agitation. [Not used.]

QUAKE

,
Noun.
A shake; a trembling; a shudder; a tremulous agitation.

Definition 2024

quake

quake

English

Noun

quake ‎(plural quakes)

  1. A trembling or shaking.
    We felt a quake in the apartment every time the train went by.
  2. An earthquake, a trembling of the ground with force.
    California is plagued by quakes; there are a few minor ones almost every month.

Translations

Verb

quake ‎(third-person singular simple present quakes, present participle quaking, simple past and past participle quaked or (archaic) quoke or (obsolete) quook)

  1. (intransitive) To tremble or shake.
    I felt the ground quaking beneath my feet.‎
    • Sir Philip Sidney (1554-1586)
      She stood quaking like the partridge on which the hawk is ready to seize.
    • 1914, Louis Joseph Vance, Nobody, chapter III:
      Turning back, then, toward the basement staircase, she began to grope her way through blinding darkness, but had taken only a few uncertain steps when, of a sudden, she stopped short and for a little stood like a stricken thing, quite motionless save that she quaked to her very marrow in the grasp of a great and enervating fear.
  2. (transitive, obsolete) To cause to tremble or shake.
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Shakespeare to this entry?)

Translations

Derived terms

German

Verb

quake

  1. First-person singular present of quaken.
  2. Imperative singular of quaken.
  3. First-person singular subjunctive I of quaken.
  4. Third-person singular subjunctive I of quaken.

Etymology

From Middle English quaken, from Old English cwacian ‎(“to quake, tremble, chatter”), from Proto-Germanic *kwakōną ‎(“to shake, quiver, tremble”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʷog- ‎(“to shake, swing”), related to Old English cweccan ‎(“to shake, swing, move, vibrate, shake off, give up”) (see quitch), Dutch kwakkelen ‎(“to ail, be ailing”), German Quackelei ‎(“chattering”), Danish kvakle ‎(“to bungle”), Latin vēxō ‎(“toss, shake violently, jostle, vex”), Irish bogadh ‎(“a move, movement, shift, change”).

Pronunciation

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