"in two shakes" meaning in English

See in two shakes in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Adverb

Audio: En-au-in two shakes.ogg [Australia]
Head templates: {{head|en|adverb|head=in two shakes}} in two shakes
  1. (dated, idiomatic) Very quickly; without delay. Tags: dated, idiomatic Synonyms: in a brace of shakes, in a few shakes, in two shakes of a cow's tail, in two shakes of a dog's tail, in two shakes of a duck's tail, in two shakes of a lamb's tail, in two shakes of a rabbit's ass Translations (very quickly): raz dva (Czech), než bys řekl švec (Czech), tuota pikaa (Finnish), en deux temps trois mouvements (French), í einum grænum (Icelandic), in un batter d'occhio (Italian), på null komma niks (Norwegian Bokmål), w mgnieniu oka (Polish), в два счёта (v dva sčóta) (Russian), en menos que canta un gallo (Spanish), en un dos por tres (Spanish), en volandas (Spanish)

Alternative forms

Download JSON data for in two shakes meaning in English (3.7kB)

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        {
          "ref": "1906, Edith Nesbit, chapter 2, in The Railway Children",
          "text": "She tried to get the case open. . . . \"I wish Father was here,\" said Phyllis; \"he'd get it open in two shakes.\"",
          "type": "quotation"
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        {
          "ref": "1910, William MacLeod Raine, chapter 5, in A Texas Ranger",
          "text": "I'll have coffee ready in two shakes of a cow's tail.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1922, Agatha Christie', chapter 19, in The Secret Adversary",
          "text": "I'll be back in two shakes of a dog's tail.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1922, P. G. Wodehouse, chapter 16, in Right Ho, Jeeves",
          "text": "In two shakes of a duck's tail Gussie, with all that lapping about inside him, will be distributing the prizes at Market Snodsbury Grammar School .",
          "type": "quotation"
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        {
          "ref": "2005 December 15, Adrian Higgins, “And All the Trimmings”, in Washington Post, page H01",
          "text": "Skilled sheep shearers can get the wool off a ewe in two shakes of a lamb's tail.",
          "type": "quotation"
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      "glosses": [
        "Very quickly; without delay."
      ],
      "id": "en-in_two_shakes-en-adv-MjkEdneG",
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        "(dated, idiomatic) Very quickly; without delay."
      ],
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          "word": "in a brace of shakes"
        },
        {
          "word": "in a few shakes"
        },
        {
          "word": "in two shakes of a cow's tail"
        },
        {
          "word": "in two shakes of a dog's tail"
        },
        {
          "word": "in two shakes of a duck's tail"
        },
        {
          "word": "in two shakes of a lamb's tail"
        },
        {
          "word": "in two shakes of a rabbit's ass"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "dated",
        "idiomatic"
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      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "cs",
          "lang": "Czech",
          "sense": "very quickly",
          "word": "raz dva"
        },
        {
          "code": "cs",
          "lang": "Czech",
          "sense": "very quickly",
          "word": "než bys řekl švec"
        },
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "very quickly",
          "word": "tuota pikaa"
        },
        {
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "very quickly",
          "word": "en deux temps trois mouvements"
        },
        {
          "code": "is",
          "lang": "Icelandic",
          "sense": "very quickly",
          "word": "í einum grænum"
        },
        {
          "code": "it",
          "lang": "Italian",
          "sense": "very quickly",
          "word": "in un batter d'occhio"
        },
        {
          "code": "nb",
          "lang": "Norwegian Bokmål",
          "sense": "very quickly",
          "word": "på null komma niks"
        },
        {
          "code": "pl",
          "lang": "Polish",
          "sense": "very quickly",
          "word": "w mgnieniu oka"
        },
        {
          "code": "ru",
          "lang": "Russian",
          "roman": "v dva sčóta",
          "sense": "very quickly",
          "word": "в два счёта"
        },
        {
          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "sense": "very quickly",
          "word": "en menos que canta un gallo"
        },
        {
          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "sense": "very quickly",
          "word": "en un dos por tres"
        },
        {
          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "sense": "very quickly",
          "word": "en volandas"
        }
      ]
    }
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      "tags": [
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  "lang_code": "en",
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          "type": "quotation"
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          "ref": "1910, William MacLeod Raine, chapter 5, in A Texas Ranger",
          "text": "I'll have coffee ready in two shakes of a cow's tail.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1922, Agatha Christie', chapter 19, in The Secret Adversary",
          "text": "I'll be back in two shakes of a dog's tail.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1922, P. G. Wodehouse, chapter 16, in Right Ho, Jeeves",
          "text": "In two shakes of a duck's tail Gussie, with all that lapping about inside him, will be distributing the prizes at Market Snodsbury Grammar School .",
          "type": "quotation"
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        {
          "ref": "2005 December 15, Adrian Higgins, “And All the Trimmings”, in Washington Post, page H01",
          "text": "Skilled sheep shearers can get the wool off a ewe in two shakes of a lamb's tail.",
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        "Very quickly; without delay."
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        "(dated, idiomatic) Very quickly; without delay."
      ],
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      "tags": [
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    {
      "word": "in a brace of shakes"
    },
    {
      "word": "in a few shakes"
    },
    {
      "word": "in two shakes of a cow's tail"
    },
    {
      "word": "in two shakes of a dog's tail"
    },
    {
      "word": "in two shakes of a duck's tail"
    },
    {
      "word": "in two shakes of a lamb's tail"
    },
    {
      "word": "in two shakes of a rabbit's ass"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "cs",
      "lang": "Czech",
      "sense": "very quickly",
      "word": "raz dva"
    },
    {
      "code": "cs",
      "lang": "Czech",
      "sense": "very quickly",
      "word": "než bys řekl švec"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "very quickly",
      "word": "tuota pikaa"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "very quickly",
      "word": "en deux temps trois mouvements"
    },
    {
      "code": "is",
      "lang": "Icelandic",
      "sense": "very quickly",
      "word": "í einum grænum"
    },
    {
      "code": "it",
      "lang": "Italian",
      "sense": "very quickly",
      "word": "in un batter d'occhio"
    },
    {
      "code": "nb",
      "lang": "Norwegian Bokmål",
      "sense": "very quickly",
      "word": "på null komma niks"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "very quickly",
      "word": "w mgnieniu oka"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "roman": "v dva sčóta",
      "sense": "very quickly",
      "word": "в два счёта"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "very quickly",
      "word": "en menos que canta un gallo"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "very quickly",
      "word": "en un dos por tres"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "very quickly",
      "word": "en volandas"
    }
  ],
  "word": "in two shakes"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-01 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.