SHAKE OFF

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does shake off mean? 

• SHAKE OFF (verb)
  The verb SHAKE OFF has 2 senses:

1. get rid of

2. get rid of

  Familiarity information: SHAKE OFF used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SHAKE OFF (verb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Get rid of

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Synonyms:

escape from; shake; shake off; throw off

Context example:

I couldn't shake the car that was following me

Hypernyms (to "shake off" is one way to...):

break loose; escape; get away (run away from confinement)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody

Sense 2

Meaning:

Get rid of

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Synonyms:

cast; cast off; drop; shake off; shed; throw; throw away; throw off

Context example:

shed your clothes

Hypernyms (to "shake off" is one way to...):

remove; take; take away; withdraw (remove something concrete, as by lifting, pushing, or taking off, or remove something abstract)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "shake off"):

exuviate; molt; moult; shed; slough (cast off hair, skin, horn, or feathers)

abscise (shed flowers and leaves and fruit following formation of a scar tissue)

exfoliate (cast off in scales, laminae, or splinters)

autotomise; autotomize (cause a body part to undergo autotomy)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

 Context examples 

Round and round he went, whirling and turning and reversing, trying to shake off the fifty-pound weight that dragged at his throat.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

But she shook her head, as one might shake off sleep or a dream, saying: I have known it all my life. It was my father’s name for my mother.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

The down-coming winter was harrying them on to the lower levels, and it seemed they could never shake off this tireless creature that held them back.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

She could not shake off the legacy of her race, the law that was of her blood and that had been trained into her.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

“Merely to the illustration of your character,” said she, endeavouring to shake off her gravity.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

Being decidedly nettled herself, and longing to see him shake off the apathy that so altered him, Amy sharpened both tongue and pencil, and began.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Yet I could not shake off the vague feeling of dread which it left behind, though the sensation grew less keen as the weeks passed and nothing happened to disturb the usual routine of our lives.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I wished sometimes to shake off all thought and feeling, but I learned that there was but one means to overcome the sensation of pain, and that was death—a state which I feared yet did not understand.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

My master, after some expressions of great indignation, wondered how we dared to venture upon a Houyhnhnm’s back; for he was sure, that the weakest servant in his house would be able to shake off the strongest Yahoo; or by lying down and rolling on his back, squeeze the brute to death.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

What if a former caprice (a freak very possible to a nature so sudden and headstrong as his) has delivered him into her power, and she now exercises over his actions a secret influence, the result of his own indiscretion, which he cannot shake off, and dare not disregard?

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)