shake down

Verb

shake down (third-person singular simple present shakes down, present participle shaking down, simple past shook down, past participle shaken down)

1. (transitive) To cause something to fall down by shaking it, or something it is attached to.
   • shake down apples from an apple tree.
2. (transitive) To shake someone so money falls from their pockets.
3. (broadly, slang, transitive) To extort money from (someone) by means of threats.
   • He left after shaking her down for four bits for carrying the bags.1966 March, Thomas Pynchon, The Crying of Lot 49, New York, N.Y.: Bantam Books, published November 1976, →ISBN, page 16
   • At 58.9K, he'd be handing over practically nine thousand dollars a year to California and to the county for the privilege of being shaken down by these thicknecks.1996, Michael Drinkard, Disobedience, page 64
4. (slang, transitive) To search exhaustively.
5. To subject something to a shakedown test.