quake

English

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 cweċċan (“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

• IPA^(key): /kweɪk/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪk

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

trembling or shaking

• Catalan: tremolor (ca) m
• Dutch: beving (nl) f
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Galician: tremor m
• Georgian: ცახცახი (caxcaxi), კანკალი (ḳanḳali), თრთოლა (trtola)

earthquake — see earthquake

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.

   • 1575-86, Sir Philip Sidney, The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia

     Dorus threw Pamela behind a tree; where she stood quaking like the partridge on which the hawk is even ready to seize.

   • KJV Bible, Nahum 1:5.

     The mountains quake at him, and the hills melt, and the earth is burnt at his presence.

2. (intransitive, figurative) To be in a state of fear, shock, amazement, etc., such as might cause one to tremble.
   • Template:RQ:Vance Nobody

     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.

   • 1598-99, William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing, Act I, Scene I

     If Cupid have not spent all his quiver in / Venice, thou wilt quake for this shortly.

   • 1599-1602, William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act III, Scene II

     Now could I drink hot blood / And do such bitter business as the bitter day / Would quake to look on.

   • 1591, William Shakespeare, Henry VI, part 2, Act IV, Scene VIII

     Who honours not his father, Henry the fifth, that made all France to quake, Shake he his weapon at us, and pass by.

   • KJV Bible, Ezekiel 12:18.

     Son of man, eat thy bread with quaking, and drink thy water with trembling and carefulness.

Derived terms

• quakebreech
• quakebuttock
• Quaker

Translations

tremble or shake

• Catalan: tremolar (ca)
• Georgian: თრთოლა (trtola), კანკალი (ḳanḳali), ცახცახი (caxcaxi)
• Greenlandic: nuna sajuppoq
• Italian: tremare (it)
• Sorbian:

  Lower Sorbian: rdžaś impf

• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Swedish: skaka (sv)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Persian: ^{(please verify)} تکان (fa) (tekân)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}

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German

Verb

quake

1. (deprecated template usage) First-person singular present of quaken.
2. (deprecated template usage) Imperative singular of quaken.
3. (deprecated template usage) First-person singular subjunctive I of quaken.
4. (deprecated template usage) Third-person singular subjunctive I of quaken.