Library / English Dictionary

SHAKE HANDS

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

Irregular inflected forms: shaken hands    , shakes hands    , shaking hands    , shook hands   

 I. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Take someone's hands and shake them as a gesture of greeting or congratulation

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Hypernyms (to "shake hands" is one way to...):

greet; recognise; recognize (express greetings upon meeting someone)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s something PP

Derivation:

handshake; handshaking (grasping and shaking a person's hand (as to acknowledge an introduction or to agree on a contract))

Credits

 Context examples: 

They are parting; they are shaking hands.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

That night, after he had kissed his sisters, he thought proper to forget even to shake hands with me, but left the room in silence.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Will you not shake hands with me?

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

We shook hands, and he was so earnest and so kind that it made me quite choky.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

At this change in his voice, Wolf lifted his head quickly, and still more quickly got to his feet when the man and woman shook hands.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

Every one of the travelers made the Winkies a pretty speech in return, and all shook hands with them until their arms ached.

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)

And Dr. Livesey shook hands with me through the stockade, nodded to Silver, and set off at a brisk pace into the wood.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

“No, indeed,” cried Emma, most happy to begin, “not in the least. I am particularly glad to see and shake hands with you—and to give you joy in person.”

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

All of us, without a word, shook hands with Professor Challenger, who raised his straw hat and bowed deeply to each in turn.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Men were shaking hands, it did not matter with whom, and bubbling over in a general incoherent babel.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)