shaking out
shaking out is the present participle and gerund of shake out.
Meaning of shake out
Verb
shake out (third-person singular simple present shakes out, present participle shaking out, simple past shook out, past participle shaken out)
- To agitate a piece of cloth or other flexible material in order to remove dust, or to try to make it smooth and flat.
- Tasks needed to complete Crossrail: [...] Trial run the Class 345s over many thousands of miles on the completed railway to shake out any problems and ensure the highest levels of safety and reliability when passenger service begins.2019 November 20, “Further testing requirements delay Crossrail to 2021”, in Rail, page 13
- To unfurl a reef from a sail
- "Thunder!" he cried. "A week! I can't do that; they'd have the black spot on me by then. The lubbers is going about to get the wind of me this blessed moment; lubbers as couldn't keep what they got, and want to nail what is another's. Is that seamanly behavior, now, I want to know? But I'm a saving...1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island, London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, →OCLC
- To result or transpire.
- We are curious to see how this all shakes out.
- To shake one's arms or legs, in order to resist muscle fatigue.
Questions about shaking out
- What is shaking out the present participle and gerund of?
- Shaking out is the present participle and gerund of shake out.
Words near shaking out in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: shaking out (page history and authors); shake out (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: “shaking out.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/shaking_out. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
