[f. the vb.]
1. The act of quaking or trembling; spec. in mod. use, an earthquake.
Rare as an independent sb., except in very recent use, but not infrequent as the second element in combs., as church-, house-, ice-, kingdom-, state-quake, EARTH-QUAKE.
[a. 1300. Cursor M., 27362. Þe dai o wreth, o quak, and soru. Ibid. (c. 1340), 927 (Trin.). Til þou turne aȝeyn in quake To þat erþe þou were of take.
1627–77. Feltham, Resolves, I. ii. 2. The quakes and shakes of Fortune.
a. 1643. Suckling, Love’s World, in Fragm. Aurea (1648), 11. As the Earth may sometimes shake, (For winds shut up will cause a quake).
1812. Lady Granville, Lett. (1894), I. 35. I have some quakes for the poor country.
1881. Nature, XXIV. 362. The great shock consisted of two quakes and several smaller, but distinct, vibrations.
2. A stretch of quake-ooze.
1896. Blackw. Mag., May, 770. They rose in a body and made for the quakes.
