Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a prostitute.

1700		Congreve Way of the World IV ii: witwoud: Will you go to the cock-match? sir wilfull: With a wench, Tony. Is she a shake-bag, sirrah!
1771		Smollett Humphrey Clinker (1925) I 68: I would pit her for a cool hundred [...] against the best shakebag of the whole main.
1793		Sporting Mag. Nov. III 96/2: You will [...] have the pleasure of being estimated by [...] the blacklegs, rooks, and shakebags, as a complete knowing one.

2. the vagina.

1890–1904

Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.

3. see shag-bag n.

an erotic dancer (no striptease seems to be involved); an early name for a pole dancer.

1936		Billboard 56/3: At Liberty / Colored People / shake dancer. light complexioned colored girl.
1944		Billboard 30 Dec. 14/2: The grotto’s talents [...] Johnny Taylor, comedian; Rosita Lockhart, shake dancer; Dorris Woods, singer, and the 10 Ziggiettes line.
1952		Jet 27 Nov. 62: ‘Oriental’ Shake Dancer Is New Night Club Rage A brand new twist has been introduced into the calculated art of shake dancing by small, compactly built, 25-year-old Rosa-lee Takella.
1964		D. Gregory Nigger 121: There are red lights around the room, faded murals on the walls, and entertainment on the weekend: an M.C., a four-piece band, a shake dancer, some amateur talent.
2022		(con. 1950s) in T.R. Hoover Soul Serenade 33: ‘sEvery gin mill, every nightclub in town [...] had a small stage, a ‘shake dancer,’ and a three- or four-piece band at the back of the lounge’.

(UK Und.) what chance is there of stealing something?

1864, 1867, 1870

Hotten Sl. Dict.

(US black) a dress that is tight across the hips and has a short, full skirt.

1935

Z.N. Hurston Mules and Men (1995) 93: Tookie Allen passed by the mill all dressed up in a tight shake-baby. She must have thought she looked good because she was walking that way. All the men stopped talking for a while.

a bully, a thug.

a.1570

Becon Works II 355: Such Sim Shake-bucklers as in their young years fall into serving, and in their old years fall into beggary [F&H].

(US black) white port and lemon juice.

1980

E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 187: Silver Satin with lemon juice was called Satin, shake-em-up, and WPLJ (white port and lemon juice).

(W.I.) a party or dance, esp. one to which an invitation is not required.

1943, 1954

cited in Cassidy & LePage Dict. Jam. Eng. (1980).

a piece of paper, carried by a beggar, which purports (falsely) to give an account of a terrible disaster, usu. a shipwreck, in which the beggar has suffered.

1859, 1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc.
1861		(con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor I 219/2: His [i.e. a patterer] papers certify any and every ‘ill that flesh is heir to.’ Shipwreck is called a ‘shake lurk;’ loss by fire is a ‘glim’.
1873		Sl. Dict.

see what’s shaking?

(US) a phr. used to indicate that nothing is going on; often the response to the greeting what’s shaking? , and meaning things are normal.

1956		E. Fontaine ‘Nothing Shaking But the Leaves on the Trees’ 🎵 Why must she be / Such a doggone tease, / There’s nothing shaking / But the leaves on the trees.
1960		D. Cerulli et al. Jazz Word 109: There’s not really a living ass to talk to, and there’s nothing shaking.
1971		R.D. Pharr S.R.O. (1998) 288: ‘I’d pick up a john and insist that it had to be my own apartment or nothing shaking’.
1975		E. Torres Carlito’s Way 87: There’s nothin’ shakin’ outside the U.S.A.
1999		N. Cohn Yes We have No 181: There was nothing shaking but the leaves on the trees.

1. to be hanged in chains [one’s flapping clothes].

c.1786		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue ms. additions n.p.: To Shake a Cloth in the Wind. To be Hanged in Chains.
1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (2nd, 3rd edn).
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.

2. to be slightly drunk [orig. naut. jargon].

1823		Morn. Post (London) 13 Oct. 4/1: I’m proud of your company [...] and hope you won’t despise me ’cause I shake a cloth in the wind.
1933		‘William Juniper’ True Drunkard’s Delight 225: Our tippler may further be [...] shaking cloth in the wind.

1. (US, also shake a limb) to dance.

1904		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 19 Oct. 2/4: The Chinaman glories in his dancing girls, but would consider himself disgraced if asked to shake a hoof and join in the revels.
1925		S. Lewis Arrowsmith 457: How’s chances on dragging her out to feed and shake a hoof with Uncle Clif?
1926		Wood & Goddard Dict. Amer. Sl. 46: shake a leg, a limb, a hoof. Dance, or move more speedily.
1927		(con. 1900s) S. Lewis Elmer Gantry 177: If he’d ever [...] shaken a hoof at Billy Portifero’s place, he’d have something to hand out.
1929		R.E. Howard ‘Pit of the Serpent’ Fight Stories July 🌐 ‘Let’s shake a hoof, baby,’ said this skate.

2. to run.

1917

G. Herriman ‘Baron Bean’ [comic strip] De po’ ole ‘Baron’ is shaking a wary wary wiolent hoof.

3. to hurry, to ‘get a move on’.

1927

(con. 1918) J.W. Thomason Red Pants 140: Shake a hoof, you cat-whiskered cabrones!

1. (also shake a foot, …haystack, …heel, …loose foot, …loose leg, …loose toe, …toe, turn a leg, shake one’s feet, …foot, …leg, …heels, ...socks, shake the foot) to dance; thus legshaking n.; leg-shake, n. a dance.

1635		H. Glapthorne Lady Mother II i: mus.: Daunce? Yes, sir we can shake our legs or soe. suc.: So said so don, brave ladd; come letts have a daunce.
1705		Vanbrugh Confederacy I i: He’s always shaking his Heels with the Ladies, and his Elbows with the Lords.
1798		T. Morton Speed the Plough II iv: ash.: I suppose you can sheake [sic] a leg a bit? handy, jun.: I fancy I can dance every possible step.
1822		D. Carey Life in Paris 206: While I live on this earth may I shake a loose leg [...] I dance on through life while others folks run.
1830		J.B. Buckstone Wreck Ashore II i: Dance with? with me, to be sure; though I hav’n’t shaken a toe these twenty years.
1833		‘Shake a Loose Leg!’ in Corinthian in Spedding & Watt (eds) Bawdy Songbooks (2011) IV 47: [as 1822].
1841		‘Donnybrook Jig’ Dublin Comic Songster 262: We’ll shake a loose toe, / While you humour the bow.
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open 123: Shake a toe, to dance.
a.1850		Thackeray Mr Maloney’s Account of the Ball n.p.: And I’d like to hear the pipers blow, And shake a fut with Fanny there [F&H].
1858		Freeman’s Jrnl 23 Oct. 4/3: He danced [...] with a number of individuals to whom he had issued ‘piper’s invitatioons’ to ’shake a loose toe’.
1859		G.A. Sala Twice Round the Clock 277: Public full-dress balls, to which a man may go, lounge about [...] and go away again without ever shaking a leg.
c.1864		‘Timothy Brown the Tailor’ Rakish Rhymer (1917) 38: Cried this fair young maiden — / ‘You’ll shake a leg with me, old flick?’.
1865		H. Kingsley Hillyars and Burtons (1870) 357: He hoped that [...] he would ‘jine ’em and shake a toe.’.
1876		Besant & Rice Golden Butterfly III 189: It will be a wedding [...] You and I may shake a leg at it if we like.
1880		Scribner’s Monthly Mar. 655: I’ve heard my father play it at Arrah, and shook a foot myself with the lads on the green [F&H].
1883		Belmont Chron. 28 June 1/6: A low-life vagabond, I’ll be bound, or he wouldn’t go to a vile ball and use such disgusting slang. ‘Shake a leg’ indeed!
1889		Dead Bird (Sydney) 16 Nov. 2/3: Has this man a notion that when a girl goes to shake her socks in the mazy the fellows yank her off the seat by the hair, and hustle her round as if they were handling chaff?
1891		F.W. Carew Autobiog. of a Gipsey 109: I can shake my leg a bit though you mightn’t think it.
1896		W.C. Gore Student Sl. in Cohen (1997) 16: shake the foot To dance.
1898		H. Macfall Wooings of Jezebel Pettyfer 307: I ax’d she to take de floor wid me and shake a leg.
1903		A. Binstead Pitcher in Paradise 28: Peter and Swears were going down to Brighton [...] to shake a loose leg at a ball.
1903		Sun. Times (Perth) 8 Mar. 1/1: A recently held leg-shake.
1907		Sun. Times (Perth) 21 July 1/1: In consequence of inquiries neither clan will shake a leg at the shivoo.
1910		Bulletin (Sydney) 17 Nov. 40/2: But he, egad, would turn a leg in town, / Would tread a measure at fastidious routs / And sit at meat with princes!
1918		R.D. Paine Fighting Fleets 221: The doctor could shake a loose foot with any of them, and Anne’s slippers fairly twinkled.
1920		R.J. Fry Salvation of Jemmy Sl. I ii: The orchestra plays the swellest jazz ya ever shook yer foot to.
1926		Wood & Goddard Dict. Amer. Sl. 46: shake a leg, a limb, a hoof. Dance, or move more speedily.
1929		E. Dahlberg Bottom Dogs 256: When the niggerjazz band was at their pop and the legshaking had stopped a bit.
1934		Sunderland Echo 4 Sept. 5/6: The Sisters Burano [...] shake a pretty leg.
1936		R.F. Adams Cowboy Lingo 190: Grab yo’ heifer an’ rattle yo’ hocks [...] Shake yo’ feet an’ ketch yo’ kitty.
1940		W.R. Burnett High Sierra in Four Novels (1984) 317: I’d get on my yacht and sail down to the islands where the babies shake a keen haystack.
1949		H. Miller Sexus (1969) 129: Some got up and danced who hadn’t shaken a leg for years.
1960		(con. c.1918) D. Holman-Hunt My Grandmothers and I (1987) 21: Tilly, do come and shake a leg.
1985		S. Berkoff West in Decadence and Other Plays (1985) 102: I like dancing really to some Latin / we jump around a bit and shake a leg.
1999		(con. 1979–80) A. Wheatle Brixton Rock (2004) 93: I like to go there [i.e. a club] and shake a leg.

2. (also shake a stump, shake leg) to hurry up, to get a move on (lit. and fig.); often as imper.

1898		H.H. Lewis Gunner Aboard the ‘Yankee’ 924: Shake a leg there!
1904		Star 23 Mar. 4/3: [from Longman’s Mag.] Come on old naggie [...] we’d better shake a leg out of this.
1909		J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era 220/1: Shake leg (Peoples’). Remove.
1914		Bulletin (Sydney) 23 July 10/1: If the girls are set on being just as free as birds like us, / Let ’em be it, let ’em be it, let ’em shake a leg and go / On the tracks that lead to Glory or to somewhere else we know.
1921		N. Putnam West Broadway 188: ‘Shake a leg [...] And make it snappy’.
1922		S. Lewis Babbitt (1974) 265: They called him ‘Old Georgie’ and shouted ‘Come on now, sport; shake a leg’.
1925		S. Lewis Arrowsmith 103: Any time the doc comes here I want you to shake a leg and hand him out that well-known service.
1931		Pensacola News Jrnl (FL) 27 Aug. 4/4: [cartoon caption] C’mon, Lefty, shake a stump — we gotta gets these violets to the ol’ man.
1934		(con. 1920s) J.T. Farrell Young Manhood in Studs Lonigan (1936) 161: I wish Killarney would shake a leg.
1938		J. Weidman I Can Get It For You Wholesale 154: Shake a leg, there, will you?
1940		E. O’Neill Long Day’s Journey into Night II ii: By God, look at the time! I’ll have to shake a leg.
1948		Z.N. Hurston Seraph on the Suwanee (1995) 630: Shake a leg! The foundations of my patience gives way mighty easy.
1951		Cusack & James Come in Spinner (1960) 233: Shake a leg, or we’ll miss the Procession.
1957		‘Nino Culotta’ They’re a Weird Mob (1958) 145: I woke to find Joe shaking me. ‘Time ter shake a leg.’.
1967		P. Thomas Down These Mean Streets (1970) 131: ‘Come on, Brew,’ I said, ‘shake a leg.’ I pulled the covers off my amigo. [Ibid.] 249: ‘Goldberg ... Goldberg, shake a leg.’ ‘Yessir, I’m coming.’.
1978		P. Theroux Picture Palace 176: Better shake a leg [...] Looks like it’s going to rain.
1981		J. Sullivan ‘Big Brother’ Only Fools and Horses [TV script] Oi, come on Rodney, shake a leg, we’ve got a meeting at 12.
1990		Eble Campus Sl. Apr. 7: shake a leg – hurry.
1999		Observer Rev. 11 July 9: Chin up, best foot forward, shake a leg, life’s what you make it.
2010		J. Ellroy Hilliker Curse 6: My dad yukked and told me to shake a leg. We were going to a movie.

to move on.

1932		(con. 1910s) J.T. Farrell Young Lonigan in Studs Lonigan (1936) 100: Leon shook himself along.
1942		M. South Marshal South and the Ghost Mountain Chronicles (2005) 127: I found myself adapting and humming half forgotten fragments of an old ballad of the Pony Express: ‘Shake along, little burros; shake along’.

(UK tramp) to live wandering as a tramp.

1834		(con. 1737–9) W.H. Ainsworth Rookwood (1857) 208: But, while luck lasts, the highwayman shakes a loose leg!
1856		H. Mayhew Great World of London 87: Those who love to shake a free leg, and lead a roving life, as they term it, rather than settle down to any continuous employment.
1861		(con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor I 407/1: The pleasure of ‘shaking a loose leg,’ as the vagrants themselves call it, is, perhaps, known only in its intensity by those wayward spirits who object to the restraint of work.

of a woman, to copulate enthusiastically.

1599

Shakespeare Henry V III vii: Methought yesterday your mistress shrewdly shook your back.

to have sexual intercourse.

1617

Fletcher Mad Lover IV ii: A bawdie House [...] Your pinkt Citizens That thinke no shame to shake a sheet there.

to urinate.

2003

G. Carlin GeorgeCarlin.com 🌐 Urinate: shake a sock / shake hands with an old friend.

1. (orig. US) to dance energetically.

1963		The Five Du-Tones [song title] Shake A Tail Feather.
1993		R. Shell Iced 115: She was on the dance floor shaking several tail feathers with this eight foot tall [...] dude.
1994		Eble Campus Sl. Apr.

2. to act energetically.

2012

G. Pelecanos (con. 1972) What It Was 117: ‘Shake a tail feather, baby.’ Monique turned on one heel and went to the fridge to get their beer.

of a man, to have sexual intercourse.

1890–1904

Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.

1. (US) to dance well and energetically.

1917		Bisbee Dly Rev. (AZ) 25 Sept. 5/2: Come to our ‘Ragpickers’ Hop’ [and] shake a wicked hoof and sing.
1917		Oakland Trib. 9CA) 21 Oct. 22/4: When you’ve kicked the grape around / Till you’re dizzy in the dome; / And you shake a nasty hoof / On your cork-screw way home.
1920		F.S. Fitzgerald This Side of Paradise in Bodley Head Scott Fitzgerald III (1960) 62: Hey, ponies — how about easing up on the crap game and shaking a mean hip?
1920		Newcastle Herald (PA) 28 Aug. 20/4: There are grandpas on the force who are still able to ‘shake a wicked leg’.
1921		O.O. McIntyre Bits of New York Life 31 Jan. [synd. col.] In odd moments he ‘shakes a wicked foot’.
1922		Wichita Beacon (KS) 13 jan. 7/2: ‘What does Jack mean when he says I ride a slippery heel?’ ‘O — that’s his slang: he means you shake a nasty hoof’.
1926		F.W. Pollock ‘The Current Expansion of Sl.’ in AS II:3 146: A good dancer ‘shakes a wicked hoof,’ while a competent performer on the saxophone ‘wields a mean sax’.
1926		Wood & Goddard Dict. Amer. Sl. 59: wicked. Skilled; as, shake a wicked leg or limb.
1927		H.C. Witwer Classics in Sl. 56: K.O. Macbeth’s wife tunes in on WXYZ, begins shakin’ a nasty shoulder and fin’ly vamps the champ into stayin’ over the night at the challenger’s dump. [Ibid.] 69: Romeo is out on the floor shakin’ a nasty hoof with one of the janes.
1932		Eve. Times (Sayre, PA) 11 Mar. 5/7: Clarence darrow will be under a handicap before that Hawaiian jury if he cannot play a steel guitar and shake a mean hip.
1933		Williamsburg Jrnl. Trib. (IA) 23 Feb. 2/4: You think you’re a fancy dancer, / That you shake a wicked leg, / You’re as graceful as a suited fish.
1935		Altoona Trib. (PA) 7 Jan. 8/1: Gilda Gray still shakes a ‘mean’ hip in spite of all the new fangled Latin dances.
1939		Sumner Gaz. (IA) 1 June 2/7: Anybuddy [sic] who likes to shake a wicked hoof [...] wants to be sure to attend the Opening Dance.
1940		Alton Eve. Teleg. (IL) 31 May 11/2: He being a former [...] tapdancer, can still shake a wicked leg.
1940		Millard Co. Chron. (Delta, VT) 7 Nov. 1/5: Wrassle with the cats from 6:30 to nine. Shake a nasty hoof after nose bag is hung.
1946		Times (Shreveport, LA) 14 May 6/2: Roddy revealed he could shake a wicked hoof if required.
1950		Brooklyn Dly Eagle (NY) 14 Aug. 5/5: Mr Spencer shakes a wicked leg and gives out with a Charleston.
1961		Yuma Dly Sun (AZ) 27 Mar. 10/2: Don Baker [...] stgill shakes a wicked leg along with the best of them.
1963		Eve. Indep. (Massillon, OH) 8 Nov. 10/2: Buddy Ebsen can still shake a wicked hoof.
1972		Baltimore Sun (MD) 20 Sept. 20/4: You’ll get up and shake a wicked leg. The dancing begins at 5 pm.
1981		News-Jrnl (Mansfield, OH) 4 May 17/5: Marlene Dietrich shakes a wicked leg.
1991		L.A. Times 10 June 174/4: ‘We’ll take a class together and [...] “shake a wicked leg”’.

2. (US) to run away at speed.

1918

Courier-Jrnl (Louisville, KY) 24 Oct. 5/5: We have certainly had our ins and outs with the Kaiser’s men. We have made them shake a wicked leg in getting away.

see separate entries.

see separate entry.

1. (Aus./US) to hurry up.

1871		L.H. Bagg Four Years at Yale 47: Shake up, to make haste. To ‘shake up a song,’ or ‘a tune,’ is to sing; and the imperative, shake it up! signifies, wide awake, there! bestir yourself!
1898		H.H. Lewis Gunner Aboard the ‘Yankee’ 116: Get those things below at once. Shake it up.
1915		Bulletin (Sydney) 7 Oct. 48/1: ‘Mother av Christ!’ he exclaimed. ‘The dhirty dogs are at it again! Shake ’er up!’ And with that he fetched the nearest mule a welt that sent the team racing to the shelter of the next bend.
1915		C.E.W. Bean Anzac Book 36/1: So for God’s sake shake it up; if you don’t, they won’t see you home at all. It’s an unhealthy night to be out.
1919		Aussie (France) Jan. 11/1: Shake yourself up, man! You ought to be there with this message by this.
1921		(con. WWI) E. Lynch Somme Mud 38: We [...] sincerely hope they’ll shake it up and relieve us early.
1927		D. Hammett ‘$106,000 Blood Money’ Story Omnibus (1966) 347: Come on [...] We’ve got to shake it up if we want to find our folks at home.
1938		X. Herbert Capricornia (1939) 129: Shake it up before the stores close.
1941		F.S. Fitzgerald ‘Fun in an Artist’s Studio’ in Pat Hobby Stories (1967) 145: Shake it up, you.
1951		M. Spillane One Lonely Night 141: Shake it because I need it right away.
1961		M. Braly Felony Tank (1962) 11: Shake it up. Come on, move!
1976		M. Braly False Starts 47: A cadet officer leaned in the doorway and shouted ‘Shake it up!’.
1981		J. Elllroy Brown’s Requiem 72: ‘Shake it, daddy, what else do you want to know?’.

2. (US) to walk in a provocative manner.

1935		J. Conroy World to Win 121: Look at that Goddamn fairy, Ralph Gibson [...] Look at the way he shakes it up. He’s tried to make every freshie on the campus.
1972		B.G. Cooke ‘Nonverbal Communication Among Afro-Americans’ in Kochman Rappin’ and Stylin’ Out 60: There are several ways a female may indicate to a man that she is interested in him by the way she walks. [. . . .] What is unique [...] is the overall rhythm of the walk, as well as the forward-and-backward motion of the shoulders which creates movement in the breast area. This kind of walk [. . .] is referred to as ‘shaking it up’.

see separate entry.

(US) the act of dismissing or abandoning someone.

1912		Ade Knocking the Neighbors 126: In the Shake-off it befell that Angie got Wilbur and Lib drew Otis.
1939		P. Cheyney Don’t Get Me Wrong (1956) 49: She gets the idea inta her little blonde head that you are thinkin’ up some deep an’ heavy plot for a quick shake-off.

see under ass n.

to be hanged.

c.1592

Marlowe Jew of Malta IV i: Oh how I long to see him shake his heels.

see under jolt n.

to hurry up, to get started.

c.1698

B.E. Dict. Canting Crew.

(N.Z./US) to make an effort, to ‘get stuck in’.

1935		Z.N. Hurston Mules and Men (1995) 69: Wake up Jacob, day’s a breakin.’ Git yo’ hoe-cake bakin’ and yo’ shirt tail shakin’.
1959		G. Slatter Gun in My Hand n.p.: You’ll haveta shake ya shirt and get down to some hard yakker.
1988		McGill Dict. of Kiwi Sl. 98/2: shake your shirt get stuck in, as in removal of shirt the better to work.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. [as cit. 1988].

see under tail n.

(US black) to dance in an exuberant manner.

2000

Ebonics Primer at www.dolemite.com 🌐 teeva Definition: to go out and shake your ass and jiggle your tits Example: Hey girl go out there and shake dat teeva all night!

to pressurize someone emotionally.

2000

S. Maloney Big Ask 149: Sounds to me like Webb’s just shaking your tree, see if anything falls out.

see under trotter n.

see under Beilby’s ball n.

1. (W.I. Rasta) to leave without haste, casually.

1984		Smiley Culture ‘Cockney Translation’ 🎵 But sometimes me shake out and leave me home town.
1994		M. Montague Dread Culture 70: Jamdown did a get too hot fi me. After di big shootout mi did haffa shake di area.

2. (US prison) to fight.

2023

Rayman & Blau Riker’s 67: [T]hey jump you and make you shake out. Fight or just give it up.

(US black) to work as a chambermaid.

1939

D. Burley N.Y. Amsterdam News 22 July 16: [They] can be found ‘shaking sheets’ [or] ‘slinging a tray’.

(US) to get rid of, to end a relationship.

1861

N.E. Police Gaz. (Boston, MA) 5 Oct. 6/1: [of a prostitute] J.M., the monkey-faced pimp of D. street is a dead beat. Did that titbit of his shake him off?

see under bullet n.¹

see under cross n.¹

see beat the (living) daylight(s) out of under daylights n.

see under lily n.

(US) to make an effort, to ‘get a move on’, to stop being lazy.

1869		Tiffin Trib. (OH) 10 June 3/4: Talk right out like a man [...] call on everybody to rally to it. Wake up! Shake off the fleas and shell out.
1880		Cairo Bull. (IL) 18 June 4/4: The Republicans of Cairo are dead ducks [...] Let them arouse themselves, shake the fleas out of their feathers [...] and crow.
1940		R. Chandler Farewell, My Lovely (1949) 13: Shake them fleas outa your pants. Service.
1971		Odessa American (TX) 30 Oct. 2/6: ‘We hope that the conferees give the bill and a good shaking and shake out the fleas’.

see under lead n.

(of a colonial) to make a fortune in India.

1800		T.E. Hook Merton 341: Dinner ended, and the ladies retired, the conversation turned upon occurrences long since past, and those olden times, in which the shaking of the pagoda-tree was an operation more generally performed, and with greater success, than in these modern days of moderation and economy.
1828		[C. D’Oyly] Tom Raw, The Griffin 2: They talk in England of a precious tree. / That, but to shake, brings down its fruit, – (pagodas,) / And fancy every one’s rapacity / May be indulged.
1829		‘Sir Toby Rendrag’ Poems 48: Writers we know don’t shake Pagoda trees, / Three hundred was their pay, in mint Rupees.
1834		J. Johnson Recess 224: He has plucked the fruit of the blighted pagoda tree – and behold the withering effects!
[1843		Bellew Memoirs of a Griffin I 6: They had all flourished for more than a century under the shade of the ‘rupee tree’].
1854		Household Wds 432/1: [O]ne of the gentlemen told my father that [...] when I reached India, I must be sure to take ‘a good pull at the Pagoda Tree.’.
1854		Allen’s Indian Mail (London) 14 Apr. 205/1: The Pagoda Tree is still occasionally found and pretty well shaken.
1864		Harper’s Mthly Oct. 620/1: In those days, when the pagoda-tree still grew ‘on India’s coral strand’ [...] young Englishmen went out on purpose to pluck the ripe fruit and stuff their pockets with it.
1874		Times of India 12 June 2/3: Those who come to India in these latter days do not shake the pagoda tree to any great extent.
1881		Times of India 28 Feb. 2/7: Mr. Pearson draws from four to five hundred thousand francs a year, Lord William more than a million, every Collector a hundred thousand and ‘perquisites;’ [...] They all shake the Pagoda tree to some purpose.
1894		R.G. Sanyal Reminiscences and Anecdotes of Great Men of India 179: They were good old times, and some autumn fruit still lingered unplucked upon the now barren pagoda tree.
1906		D. Dewar Bombay Ducks v: In the palmy days of the East India Company, when the now-barren pagoda-tree showered its fruits upon all who shook it, the European residents of the Western Presidency were known as Bombay Ducks.
1959		P.G. Wodehouse in Sat. Rev. 14 Mar. 25/3: Later he went to India and cleaned up there to the tune of £120,000. Shaking the pagoda tree, it was called.

to have sexual intercourse.

1620

in A. Niccholes Discourse of Marriage and Wiving 37: I have a wife my selfe, I tell you true, / Yet in the old kind seekes for pleasures new: / Taking not now delight that I haue tooke, / To shake the Tree that I so oft haue shooke.

see separate entries.

1. (US, also how’s it shaking?) a greeting, hello and how are you?

1951		Phila. Eve. Bulletin 11 Nov. n.p.: Remember way back then you used to say ‘whatcha know, Joe?’ ’Tain’t like that no more, kid. Now you say ‘Let’s talk trash’ or else ask ‘What’s shakin’?’ The answer is: ‘Nothin’ but the bacon.’.
1961		H. Ellison Rockabilly (1963) 171: What’s shaking, Stag?
1974		(con. 1960s) R. R. Price Wanderers 10: Hey Antone, what’s shakin?
1987		Tennessean (Nashville, TN) 10 Oct. 59/4: Dos, dont’s for greeting the royalty. ‘Hey, [Princess] Anne, what’s shaking?’ will not get it.
1990		E. Ruggero 38 North Yankee 43: What’s shakin’?
1995		R. Campbell Wizard of La-La Land (1999) 11: ‘Hey, how’s it shaking, kid?’ Rialto said, soft and low.
2004		J. Ellroy ‘Hollywood Fuck Pad’ Destination: Morgue! (2004) 222: What’s shakin’, you big-dick motherfuckers?
2015		Chicago Trib. 15 Aug. 10/3: [cartoon caption] ‘Don! It’s Bill’ What’s shakin’?’.
2018		‘Aidan Truhen’ Price You Pay 58: What is shaking Jack?
2021		J. Ellroy Widespread Panic 197: Miss Blind Item said, ‘Hey, Nat, what’s shaking?’.

2. (US) what’s the matter?

1965		H. Rhodes Chosen Few (1966) 82: ‘Monk!’ Clark said. ‘Yeah, Clark, what’s shakin?’.
1969		S.C. Wilson Time Warp Tales [comic bk] Hey Geek what’s shakin’ here.

(W.I.) a greeting between two men, lit. ‘shake my five fingers’.

1996

Allsopp Dict. Carib. Eng. Usage.