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quake

Pronunciation: /kweɪk/

The English word “quake” has 5 meanings listed here.

noun

  1. A trembling or shaking.
  2. An earthquake, a trembling of the ground with force.
  3. Something devastating, like a strong earthquake.

verb

  1. To tremble or shake.
  2. To be in a state of fear, shock, amazement, etc., such as might cause one to tremble.

Etymology

From Middle English quaken, from Old English cwacian (“to quake, tremble, chatter”), from Proto-Germanic *kwakōną (“to shake, quiver, tremble”), itself likely of imitative origin. 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 vexō (“toss,…

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.