quake in one's boots

English

Alternative forms

• shake in one's boots, quake in one's shoes, shake in one's shoes

Pronunciation

• Audio (AU)

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Verb

quake in one's boots (third-person singular simple present quakes in one's boots, present participle quaking in one's boots, simple past and past participle quaked in one's boots)

1. (informal, idiomatic) To be very frightened, scared, or nervous.

   The thought of climbing that high had him quaking in his boots.

Usage notes

• Often used sarcastically to mean that something is not at all frightening, e.g. The little dog thought it had me quaking in my boots with all the barking it was doing.

Translations

to be very frightened

• Dutch: trillen op zijn benen
• Russian: душа́ в пятки ушла (ru) (dušá v pjatki ušla), се́рдце в пятки ушло (sérdce v pjatki ušlo)
• Telugu: గుండె జారిపోవు (guṇḍe jāripōvu)