| shake | 1. To cause to move with quick or violent vibrations; to move rapidly one way and the other; to make to tremble or shiver; to agitate. "As a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind." (Rev. Vi. 13) "Ascend my chariot; guide the rapid wheels That shake heaven's basis." (Milton) 2. To move from firmness; to weaken the stability of; to cause to waver; to impair the resolution of. "When his doctrines grew too strong to be shook by his enemies, they persecuted his reputation." (Atterbury) "Thy equal fear that my firm faith and love Can by his fraud be shaken or seduced." (Milton) 3. To give a tremulous tone to; to trill; as, to shake a note in music. 4. To move or remove by agitating; to throw off by a jolting or vibrating motion; to rid one's self of; generally with an adverb, as off, out, etc.; as, to shake fruit down from a tree. "Shake off the golden slumber of repose." (Shak) "'Tis our fast intent To shake all cares and business from our age." (Shak) "I could scarcely shake him out of my company." (Bunyan) To shake a cask, to luff up in the wind, causing the sails to shiver. Origin: OE. Shaken, schaken, AS. Scacan, sceacan; akin to Icel. & Sw. Skaka, OS. Skakan, to depart, to flee. Cf. Shock. 1. The act or result of shaking; a vacillating or wavering motion; a rapid motion one way and other; a trembling, quaking, or shivering; agitation. "The great soldier's honor was composed Of thicker stuff, which could endure a shake." (Herbert) "Our salutations were very hearty on both sides, consisting of many kind shakes of the hand." (Addison) 2. A fissure or crack in timber, caused by its being dried too suddenly. 3. A fissure in rock or earth. 4. A rapid alternation of a principal tone with another represented on the next degree of the staff above or below it; a trill. 5. One of the staves of a hogshead or barrel taken apart. 6. A shook of staves and headings. 7. <zoology> The redshank; so called from the nodding of its head while on the ground. No great shakes, of no great importance. The shakes, the fever and ague. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
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| shake culture | A culture made by inoculating a liquefied gelatin or agar medium, distributing the inoculum thoroughly by agitation, and then allowing the medium to solidify in the tube in an upright position. (05 Mar 2000) |
| shake test | A test for foetal pulmonary maturity, determined by the ability of pulmonary surfactant in amniotic fluid to generate stable foam in the presence of ethanol after mechanical agitation. Synonym: shake test. (05 Mar 2000) |
| shaken | 1. Caused to shake; agitated; as, a shaken bough. 2. Cracked or checked; split. See Shake. "Nor is the wood shaken or twisted." (Barroe) 3. Impaired, as by a shock. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| Shaker | Drosophila gene encoding a potassium channel. Related gene families Shab, Shal, Shaw have now been found in both fly and human. The Drosophila shaker mutant is so called and readily detected, because the flies legs shake under ether anesthesia. (18 Nov 1997) |
| shakeress | A female Shaker. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| shakes | The vernacular term for a paroxysm associated with an intermittent fever. (05 Mar 2000) |
| shale | 1. A shell or husk; a cod or pod. "The green shales of a bean." 2. [G. Shale. <geology> A fine-grained sedimentary rock of a thin, laminated, and often friable, structure. Bituminous shale. See Bituminous. Origin: AS. Scealy, scalu. See Scalme, and cf. Shell. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| shallon | <botany> An evergreen shrub (Gaultheria Shallon) of Northwest America; also, its fruit. See Salal-berry. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| shallot | <botany> A small kind of onion (Allium Ascalonicum) growing in clusters, and ready for gathering in spring; a scallion, or eschalot. Origin: OF. Eschalote (for escalone), F. Echalote. See Scallion, and cf. Eschalot. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| shallow | 1. A place in a body of water where the water is not deep; a shoal; a flat; a shelf. "A swift stream is not heard in the channel, but upon shallows of gravel." (Bacon) "Dashed on the shallows of the moving sand." (Dryden) 2. <zoology> The rudd. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| shallow breathing | A type of breathing with abnormally low tidal volume. (05 Mar 2000) |
| shallow-hearted | Incapable of deep feeling. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| sham feeding | A procedure used in the study of the psychic phase of gastric secretion: in experiments on dogs, the food, after being eaten, does not enter the stomach but issues from an oesophageal fistula made in the neck; the chewing and swallowing of food causes an abundant secretion of gastric juice. Synonym: fictitious feeding. (05 Mar 2000) |
| sham rage | A quasi-emotional state, characterised by manifestations of fear and anger upon trifling provocation; produced in animals by the removal of the cerebral cortex (decortication). (05 Mar 2000) |