quake
Americanverb (used without object)
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quakes,
present (3rd person singular)
-
quaked,
past participle, past
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quaking
present participle
noun
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quakes
plural
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an earthquake.
-
a trembling or tremulous agitation.
verb
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to shake or tremble with or as with fear
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to convulse or quiver, as from instability
noun
-
the act or an instance of quaking
-
informal short for earthquake
Synonym Usage
See shiver 1.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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quakesimple
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quakessimple
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have quakedperfect
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has quakedperfect
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am quakingprogressive
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are quakingprogressive
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is quakingprogressive
-
have been quakingperfect progressive
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has been quakingperfect progressive
Past
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quakedsimple
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had quakedperfect
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was quakingprogressive
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were quakingprogressive
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had been quakingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of quake
First recorded before 900; Middle English; Old English cwacian “to shake, tremble”
Explanation
When you quake, you tremble and shiver. A scary sound in a dark basement might make you quake. To quake is to move rapidly back and forth, so quickly that the movement is almost a vibration. If you've ever felt the floor quake during an actual earthquake, you know the fluttery, shaking kind of movement. A person can quake with fear, and a building can quake during a wind storm. You can also use the word quake as a noun, to describe the feeling itself. The Old English root is cwacian, or "tremble or clatter of teeth."
Vocabulary lists containing quake
Common Five-letter Words for Wordle, List 5
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Scrabble: Words that Begin with Q
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Lesson 24
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Nearly 1,100 people reported feeling Sunday’s quake, according to the USGS.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 6, 2026
No injuries were reported from that quake, possibly because there were fewer people in the streets at that hour, although damage was reported in some buildings.
From Barron's ● Aug. 18, 2026
Alfonso Malpica said he felt his ground floor flat in Granada shaking, telling El País newspaper that the quake was "stronger than the ones that happen from time to time, the ones we're used to".
From BBC ● Aug. 18, 2026
Almost a week after the quake, fatigue and anguish have taken a tough toll on volunteers and the families of the dead and missing.
From Barron's ● Aug. 17, 2026
At twenty minutes to midnight on that date, Hebgen Lake suffered a catastrophic quake.
From "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson
La Guaira, home to a popular resort of the same name 40 kilometers from Venezuela's capital Caracas, was devastated by powerful back-to-back quakes on June 24 that left over 6,500 people dead.
From Barron's ● Sep. 15, 2026
First discovered in the northern hemisphere more than 20 years ago, these quakes occur when huge chunks of ice fall from glaciers into the sea.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 30, 2026
Worshipers gather for a recent Sunday Mass at the St. Bartholomew the Apostle Church, which lost more than 200 parishioners in the quakes.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 14, 2026
The quake comes less than two months after twin quakes devastated the north of neighbouring Venezuela, killing more than 6,100 people.
From BBC ● Aug. 10, 2026
She stomps on the ground, and the room quakes.
From "The Last Cuentista" by Donna Barba Higuera
He was so influential that two presidents, Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhower, quaked under fear of incurring McCarthy's wrath.
From Salon ● Oct. 6, 2024
But on board, the 12-year-old girl quaked with fear.
From Seattle Times ● May 7, 2024
He has never been to Kyle Field, which does quake even if it quaked less last Saturday.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 16, 2022
The car screamed, quaked, stopped and smoked yet somehow started again.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 18, 2022
Regardless, the guards’ faces were stern and hard, and she quaked inside.
From "Where the Mountain Meets the Moon" by Grace Lin
But while Wembanyama is having the time of his life, every other team in the league is quaking in its boots.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 25, 2026
Troubles, however, are also quaking on the offensive side of America’s nuclear-weapons enterprise—specifically, the program to build a new land-based intercontinental ballistic missile, the Sentinel, to replace the 400 current ICBMs, known as Minuteman IIIs.
From Slate ● Sep. 16, 2025
"Sure enough, the quaking started to happen," Mr Manaugh said.
From BBC ● Apr. 14, 2025
The role is so glorious that he almost breaks character when he begins quaking in earnest.
From Salon ● Nov. 9, 2024
Inside, Roy was quaking with terror but on the outside he remained calm and motionless.
From "Hoot" by Carl Hiaasen
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
