"quake in one's boots" meaning in English

See quake in one's boots in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Audio: En-au-quake in one's boots.ogg Forms: quakes in one's boots [present, singular, third-person], quaking in one's boots [participle, present], quaked in one's boots [participle, past], quaked in one's boots [past], shake in one's boots [alternative], quake in one's shoes [alternative], shake in one's shoes [alternative]
Head templates: {{en-verb|*|head=quake in one's boots}} quake in one's boots (third-person singular simple present quakes in one's boots, present participle quaking in one's boots, simple past and past participle quaked in one's boots)
  1. (informal, idiomatic) To be very frightened, scared, or nervous. Tags: idiomatic, informal Categories (topical): Fear Translations (to be very frightened): trillen op zijn benen (Dutch), душа́ в пятки ушла (dušá v pjatki ušla) (Russian), се́рдце в пятки ушло (sérdce v pjatki ušlo) (Russian), గుండె జారిపోవు (guṇḍe jāripōvu) (Telugu)

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "quakes in one's boots",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "quaking in one's boots",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "quaked in one's boots",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "quaked in one's boots",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "shake in one's boots",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "quake in one's shoes",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "shake in one's shoes",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*",
        "head": "quake in one's boots"
      },
      "expansion": "quake in one's boots (third-person singular simple present quakes in one's boots, present participle quaking in one's boots, simple past and past participle quaked in one's boots)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Entries with translation boxes",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Dutch translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Russian translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Telugu translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Fear",
          "orig": "en:Fear",
          "parents": [
            "Emotions",
            "Mind",
            "Human",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "The thought of climbing that high had him quaking in his boots.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To be very frightened, scared, or nervous."
      ],
      "id": "en-quake_in_one's_boots-en-verb-SozhNpki",
      "links": [
        [
          "frightened",
          "frightened"
        ],
        [
          "scared",
          "scared"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(informal, idiomatic) To be very frightened, scared, or nervous."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic",
        "informal"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "nl",
          "lang": "Dutch",
          "sense": "to be very frightened",
          "word": "trillen op zijn benen"
        },
        {
          "code": "ru",
          "lang": "Russian",
          "roman": "dušá v pjatki ušla",
          "sense": "to be very frightened",
          "word": "душа́ в пятки ушла"
        },
        {
          "code": "ru",
          "lang": "Russian",
          "roman": "sérdce v pjatki ušlo",
          "sense": "to be very frightened",
          "word": "се́рдце в пятки ушло"
        },
        {
          "code": "te",
          "lang": "Telugu",
          "roman": "guṇḍe jāripōvu",
          "sense": "to be very frightened",
          "word": "గుండె జారిపోవు"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-quake in one's boots.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/b/be/En-au-quake_in_one%27s_boots.ogg/En-au-quake_in_one%27s_boots.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/be/En-au-quake_in_one%27s_boots.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "word": "quake in one's boots"
}
{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "quakes in one's boots",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "quaking in one's boots",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "quaked in one's boots",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "quaked in one's boots",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "shake in one's boots",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "quake in one's shoes",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "shake in one's shoes",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*",
        "head": "quake in one's boots"
      },
      "expansion": "quake in one's boots (third-person singular simple present quakes in one's boots, present participle quaking in one's boots, simple past and past participle quaked in one's boots)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English idioms",
        "English informal terms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English terms with usage examples",
        "English verbs",
        "Entries with translation boxes",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries",
        "Terms with Dutch translations",
        "Terms with Russian translations",
        "Terms with Telugu translations",
        "en:Fear"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "The thought of climbing that high had him quaking in his boots.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To be very frightened, scared, or nervous."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "frightened",
          "frightened"
        ],
        [
          "scared",
          "scared"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(informal, idiomatic) To be very frightened, scared, or nervous."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic",
        "informal"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-quake in one's boots.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/b/be/En-au-quake_in_one%27s_boots.ogg/En-au-quake_in_one%27s_boots.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/be/En-au-quake_in_one%27s_boots.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "nl",
      "lang": "Dutch",
      "sense": "to be very frightened",
      "word": "trillen op zijn benen"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "roman": "dušá v pjatki ušla",
      "sense": "to be very frightened",
      "word": "душа́ в пятки ушла"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "roman": "sérdce v pjatki ušlo",
      "sense": "to be very frightened",
      "word": "се́рдце в пятки ушло"
    },
    {
      "code": "te",
      "lang": "Telugu",
      "roman": "guṇḍe jāripōvu",
      "sense": "to be very frightened",
      "word": "గుండె జారిపోవు"
    }
  ],
  "word": "quake in one's boots"
}

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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-03-18 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-03-02 using wiktextract (f2d86ce and 633533e). 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.

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