%quak%

n. A shaking, trembling, or concussion of the earth, due to subterranean causes, often accompanied by a rumbling noise. The wave of shock sometimes traverses half a hemisphere, destroying cities and many thousand lives; -- called also earthdin, earthquave, and earthshock. [ 1913 Webster ]

Earthquake alarm, a bell signal constructed to operate on the theory that a few seconds before the occurrence of an earthquake the magnet temporarily loses its power. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Like, or characteristic of, an earthquake; loud; startling. [ 1913 Webster ]

The earthquake voice of victory. Byron. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A quaking or trembling of the flesh; a quiver. [ Obs. ] B. Jonson. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Trembling of the heart; trepidation; fear. [ 1913 Webster ]

In many an hour of danger and heartquake. Hawthorne. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The crash or concussion attending the breaking up of masses of ice, -- often due to contraction from extreme cold. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. [ imp. & p. p. Quaked p. pr. & vb. n. Quaking. ] [ AS. cwacian; cf. G. quackeln. Cf. Quagmire. ] 1. To be agitated with quick, short motions continually repeated; to shake with fear, cold, etc.; to shudder; to tremble. “Quaking for dread.” Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

She stood quaking like the partridge on which the hawk is ready to seize. Sir P. Sidney. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To shake, vibrate, or quiver, either from not being solid, as soft, wet land, or from violent convulsion of any kind; as, the earth quakes; the mountains quake. “ Over quaking bogs.” Macaulay. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ Cf. AS. cweccan to move, shake. See Quake, v. t. ] To cause to quake. [ Obs. ] Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. A tremulous agitation; a quick vibratory movement; a shudder; a quivering. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. An earthquake.
Syn. -- earthquake; tremor; temblor. [ PJC ]

n. 1. One who quakes. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. One of a religious sect founded by George Fox, of Leicestershire, England, about 1650, -- the members of which call themselves Friends. They were called Quakers, originally, in derision. See Friend, n., 4. [ 1913 Webster ]

Fox's teaching was primarily a preaching of repentance . . . The trembling among the listening crowd caused or confirmed the name of Quakers given to the body; men and women sometimes fell down and lay struggling as if for life. Encyc. Brit. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (Zool.) (a) The nankeen bird. (b) The sooty albatross. (c) Any grasshopper or locust of the genus Edipoda; -- so called from the quaking noise made during flight. [ 1913 Webster ]

Quaker buttons. (Bot.) See Nux vomica. --
Quaker gun, a dummy cannon made of wood or other material; -- so called because the sect of Friends, or Quakers, hold to the doctrine, of nonresistance. --
Quaker ladies (Bot.), a low American biennial plant (Houstonia cærulea), with pretty four-lobed corollas which are pale blue with a yellowish center; -- also called bluets, and little innocents. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A woman who is a member of the Society of Friends. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Like or pertaining to a Quaker; Quakerlike. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The peculiar character, manners, tenets, etc., of the Quakers. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Like a Quaker. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Resembling Quakers; Quakerlike; Quakerish. Macaulay. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Quakerism. [ Obs. ] Hallywell. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Zool.) A wagtail. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The state of being quaky; liability to quake. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. & n. from Quake, v. [ 1913 Webster ]

Quaking aspen (Bot.), an American species of poplar (Populus tremuloides), the leaves of which tremble in the lightest breeze. It much resembles the European aspen. See Aspen. --
Quaking bog, a bog of forming peat so saturated with water that it shakes when trodden upon. --
Quaking grass. (Bot.) (a) One of several grasses of the genus Briza, having slender-stalked and pendulous ovate spikelets, which quake and rattle in the wind. Briza maxima is the large quaking grass; Briza media and Briza minor are the smaller kinds. (b) Rattlesnake grass (Glyceria Canadensis). [ 1913 Webster ]

adv. In a quaking manner; fearfully. Sir P. Sidney. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Shaky, or tremulous; quaking. [ 1913 Webster ]