shaky

English

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *skek-der.

Proto-Germanic *skakaną

Proto-West Germanic *skakan

Old English sċacan

Middle English schaken

English shake

Proto-Indo-European *-kos

Proto-Germanic *-gaz

Proto-West Germanic *-g

Old English -iġ

Middle English -y

English -y

English shaky

From shake + -y.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈʃeɪki/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪki

Adjective

shaky (comparative shakier, superlative shakiest)

1. Shaking or trembling.

   a shaky spot in a marsh

   a shaky hand

2. Nervous, anxious.

   He’s a nice guy but when he talks to me, he acts shaky.

   • 2006, Paul A. Grayson, Philip W. Meilman, College Mental Health Practice, page 11:

     For the college clinician, restless nights after letting a shaky student walk out of the office are an occupational hazard. Are the student's safety assurances credible? Will he or she make it safely through the weekend?

   • 2011 April 10, Alistair Magowan, “Aston Villa 1 - 0 Newcastle”, in BBC Sport‎^[1], archived from the original on 3 September 2026:

     Villa had plenty of opportunities to make the game safe after a shaky start and despite not reaching any great heights, they were resolute enough to take control of the game in the second half.

3. (of wood) Full of shakes or cracks; cracked.

   shaky timber

   • For quotations using this term, see Citations:shaky.
4. Easily shaken; tottering; unsound.

   a shaky constitution

   shaky business credit

   • 1978 [1976], Leszek Kołakowski, translated by P[aul] S[teven] Falla, Main Currents of Marxism, volume II: The Golden Age, Oxford: Clarendon Press, translation of Główne nurty marksizmu: rozwój (in Polish), →ISBN, →OCLC, page 237:

     Brzozowski, arguing from a shaky factual basis, challenged both these axioms and proposed an interpretation of his own which is remarkably close to the philosophic outlook of Marx's early writings that have since come to light.

5. Wavering; undecided.

Synonyms

• (not held or fixed securely and likely to fall over): precarious, rickety, unsteady, tottering, unsafe, unstable, wobbly

Derived terms

• on shaky ground
• shakily
• shakiness
• shakycam

Translations

unstady, wobbly

• Bulgarian: треперещ (bg) (treperešt), тресящ се (tresjašt se)
• Cebuano: huyang
• Esperanto: nestabila
• Hungarian: rozoga (hu)
• Ingrian: hatara
• Italian: traballante (it)
• Turkish:

  Ottoman Turkish: طوپال (topal) (of furniture)

shaking

• Catalan: tremolós (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 颤抖的 (zh) (chàndǒu de), 发抖的 (zh) (fādǒu de)

• Dutch: bibberig (nl), trillerig (nl)
• Esperanto: tremanta
• Irish: creathach
• Manx: craagh
• Plautdietsch: schlakrich, flautrich
• Russian: дрожащий (ru) m (drožaščij)
• Scots: shooglie
• Spanish: tembloroso (es)
• Swedish: skakig (sv)

full of cracks

• Russian: растрескавшийся (ru) m (rastreskavšijsja)

unsound

• Bulgarian: разклатен (bg) (razklaten), неустойчив (bg) (neustojčiv)
• Dutch: onzeker (nl), zwak (nl), gammel (nl)
• Esperanto: tremema
• French: instable (fr)
• Italian: malfermo (it) m
• Latin: instābilis
• Māori: tūretireti
• Occitan: instable (oc), malsan (oc), malgalhard
• Russian: шаткий (ru) m (šatkij), зыбкий (ru) m (zybkij)
• Scots: shooglie
• Swedish: skakig (sv)

Anagrams

• hayks