shaky
Americanadjective
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tending to shake or tremble.
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trembling; tremulous.
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liable to break down or give way; insecure; not to be depended upon.
a shaky bridge.
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wavering, as in allegiance.
His loyalty, always shaky, was now nonexistent.
adjective
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tending to shake or tremble
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liable to prove defective; unreliable
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uncertain or questionable
your arguments are very shaky
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Adjectives
Etymology
Origin of shaky
Explanation
Something shaky is trembling — or just feels like it. When we're not confident, we feel shaky. Being shaky is something that happens to us all. The first day of a job or class can make anyone feel shaky — even the teacher or boss. When you get extremely nervous, your hands might literally shake. That's not fun, but it might help you remember what shaky means. A building in an earthquake and a tree in the wind can also be shaky. One person we hope is not shaky — in either way — is a surgeon.
Vocabulary lists containing shaky
Common Five-letter Words for Wordle, List 3
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Feeling Faint: Synonyms for "Weak"
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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:
But he has criticized going after companies when prosecutors don’t have enough evidence to charge individuals, or pursuing shaky cases that don’t appear to be winnable at trial.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 29, 2026
Add in expectations of falling inflation, a stronger dollar and policy rates that are still relatively restrictive compared with much of the developed world, and the case for new hikes starts to look shaky.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 29, 2026
However, support for the effort has grown increasingly shaky.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 26, 2026
The evidence that social media is making children unhappy in general is pretty shaky as it stands.
From Slate ● Jun. 18, 2026
Cassano nevertheless agreed to meet with all the big Wall Street firms and discuss the logic of their deals—to investigate how a bunch of shaky loans could be transformed into triple-A-rated bonds.
From "The Big Short" by Michael Lewis
Nigeria's GDP is the fourth largest in Africa, but after years of mismanagement and corruption, its grid is often shakier than that of neighbouring, poorer countries.
From Barron's ● Jun. 8, 2026
But UBS analysts said the company could try to give itself more flexibility for a wider range of outcomes in its financial forecast, due to the the leadership change and a shakier economic backdrop.
From MarketWatch ● Apr. 5, 2026
Last week’s Treasury auctions were shakier than usual.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 1, 2026
The same could be said of Lesli Margherita’s Mrs. Lovett, the proprietor of a filthy and failing Fleet Street pie shop, but it’s a shakier case.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 3, 2026
It was almost perfect, just a fraction flatter and shakier than Betty Jean’s voice had been, the o’s and ah’s parodies of Betty Jean’s pretentious ones.
From "Jacob Have I Loved" by Katherine Paterson
"OpenAI's nascent hardware business now rests on the shakiest of foundations, rotten to its core by its illegal reliance on misappropriated trade secrets," the complaint said.
From Barron's ● Jul. 10, 2026
That is one element of this which the committee is doubtless going to want to probe further, and perhaps where Sir Olly felt on shakiest ground.
From BBC ● Apr. 21, 2026
Then came a 10-foot stretch in which you had to swing yourself between vertically hanging ropes, with only the shakiest of footing below.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 14, 2023
I’d think he’d be on the shakiest ground of the likely nominees, but Film Twitter needs something to gripe about on nominations morning and a nomination for Branagh is probably it.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 5, 2022
Morgan to buy it by offering a knockdown price and guaranteeing Bear Stearns’s shakiest assets.
From "The Big Short" by Michael Lewis
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.
