shaky

English

Etymology

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]:

     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

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
• shakiness
• shakycam

Translations

unstady, wobbly

• Bulgarian: треперещ (bg) (treperešt), тресящ се (tresjašt se)
• Cebuano: huyang
• Hungarian: rozoga (hu)
• Ingrian: hatara

shaking

• Catalan: tremolós (ca)
• Chinese:

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

• Dutch: bibberig (nl), trillerig (nl)
• 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)
• French: instable (fr)
• Italian: malfermo (it) m
• Latin: instābilis
• Maori: tūretireti
• Occitan: instable (oc), malsan (oc), malgalhard
• Russian: шаткий (ru) m (šatkij), зыбкий (ru) m (zybkij)
• Scots: shooglie
• Swedish: skakig (sv)

Anagrams

• hayks