Word.ws English Dictionary

shake in one's boots

shake in one's boots is the alternative form of quake in one's boots.

Meaning of quake in one's boots

Verb

quake in one's boots (third-person singular simple present quakes in one's boots, present participle quaking in one's boots, simple past and past participle quaked in one's boots)

  1. (idiomatic, informal) To be very frightened, scared, or nervous.
    • The thought of climbing that high had him quaking in his boots.

Forms of shake in one's boots

third-person singular presentshakes in one's boots
present participleshaking in one's boots
pastshook in one's boots
past participleshaken in one's boots

Questions about shake in one's boots

What is shake in one's boots the alternative form of?
Shake in one's boots is the alternative form of quake in one's boots.

Words near shake in one's boots in the dictionary

  1. shake down
  2. shake hands
  3. shake hands with the milkman
  4. shake hands with the unemployed
  5. shake hole
  6. shake in one's boots
  7. shake in one's shoes
  8. shake it
  9. shake it up
  10. shake like a leaf
  11. shake map

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: shake in one's boots (page history and authors); quake in one's boots (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “shake in one's boots.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/shake_in_one%27s_boots. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.