different between shaky vs snaky

English

Etymology

shake +? -y

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??e?ki/
• Rhymes: -e?ki

Adjective

shaky (comparative shakier, superlative shakiest)

1. Shaking or trembling.

   a shaky spot in a marsh

   a shaky hand

2. Nervous, anxious.

   He’s a nice guy but when he talks to me, he acts shaky.

   • 2006, Paul A. Grayson, ?Philip W. Meilman, College Mental Health Practice (page 11)

     For the college clinician, restless nights after letting a shaky student walk out of the office are an occupational hazard. Are the student's safety assurances credible? Will he or she make it safely through the weekend?
3. (of wood) Full of shakes or cracks; cracked.

   shaky timber

   For quotations using this term, see Citations:shaky.

4. Easily shaken; tottering; unsound.

   a shaky constitution

   shaky business credit

5. Wavering; undecided.

Synonyms

• (not held or fixed securely and likely to fall over): precarious, rickety, unsteady, tottering, unsafe, unstable, wobbly

Derived terms

• shakiness
• shakycam

Translations

Anagrams

• hayks

English

Alternative forms

• snakey

Etymology

snake +? -y

Adjective

snaky (comparative snakier, superlative snakiest)

1. Resembling or relating to snakes.
2. Windy; winding; twisty; sinuous, wavy.
   • 1942, Emily Carr, “Chain Gang”, in The Book of Small:^[1]

     The nuns’ veils billowed and flapped behind the snaky line of girls as if the sisters were shooing the serpent from the Garden of Eden.

3. (obsolete) sly; cunning; deceitful.
4. (obsolete) Covered with serpents; having serpents.
   • 1634, John Milton, Comus, lines 447-452,^[2]

     What was that snaky-headed Gorgon shield

     That wise Minerva wore, unconquered virgin,

     Wherewith she freezed her foes to congealed stone,

     But rigid looks of chaste austerity,

     And noble grace that dashed brute violence

     With sudden adoration and blank awe?

   • 1700, John Dryden, “Palamon and Arcite,”^[3]

     His hat adorned with wings disclosed the god,

     And in his hand he bore the sleep-compelling rod;

     Such as he seemed, when, at his sire’s command,

     On Argus’ head he laid the snaky wand.

Translations

Anagrams

• Yanks, nasky, sanky, yanks