shakyadj.

1850 J. Ogilvie Imperial Dict. Shaky, 2. loosely put together; ready to come to pieces. Familiar.

1860 J. Tyndall Glaciers of Alps i. xxv. 182 The bridge was so frail and shaky at the place of junction.

1871 Punch 2 Dec. 228/2 The chair..so shaky in the legs.

1894 Bookseller's Catal. Binding shaky.

1933 Bulletin (Sydney) 2 Aug. 20/2 The widespread notion that they're peculiar to the Shaky Isles.

1941 S. J. Baker N.Z. Slang vi. 49 New Zealand was no longer merely a colony; it became the Dominion, the Shakey Isles,..and so on.

1971 Sunday Tel. (Sydney) 16 May 37/2 He came over from the Shaky Isles in his early 30s.

1850 W. M. Thackeray Pendennis II. xxxii. 317 The old fellow's hand was very cold and shaky.

1871 O. W. Holmes Smiling Listener 46 Well, Time with..his shaky old fingers will soon snuff us out.

1847 W. M. Thackeray Vanity Fair (1848) xxxviii. 349 All he did was to sign the circulars..and direct them in a shaky, clerk-like hand.

1891 C. T. C. James Romantic Rigmarole 92 At this point the writing began to grow very shaky and weak.

1841 W. M. Thackeray Great Hoggarty Diamond x Our director was—what is not to be found in Johnson's Dictionary—rather shaky. Three of his companies had broken, four more were in a notoriously insolvent state.

1853 S. Wilberforce Let. 3 Nov. in R. G. Wilberforce Life S. Wilberforce (1881) II. 225 Lord Aberdeen now growing to look upon Gladstone as his successor... Cabinet shaky.

1865 M. E. Braddon Sir Jasper I. xiv. 302 With a view to raising money on very shaky security.

1884 Law Times 1 Nov. 10/2 The manufacturer, whose credit is so shaky.

1908 Blackwood's Mag. July 130/2 His seat in Parliament was shaky.

1853 E. Bulwer-Lytton My Novel III. xi. xvii. 342 Well,..I must be off presently to see to those three shaky voters in Fish Lane.

1857 Lady Canning in A. J. C. Hare Two Noble Lives (1893) II. 202 The shaky regiment, the 37th, had tried to tamper with the Seiks.

1884 Contemp. Rev. Jan. 141 A work..calculated to render persons who are shaky in their belief in religion..more shaky still.

1844 C. Dickens Let. 26 Feb. (1977) IV. 51 I am rayther shakey just now, but shall pull up.

1856 ‘The Druid’ Post & Paddock (ed. 2) i. 26 If his legs are shaky, a ‘forlorn hope’ is made to ‘train him [sc. the racehorse] through the muzzle’.

1860 J. C. Hotten Dict. Slang (ed. 2) Shaky, said..at the University, of one not likely to pass his examination.

1881 Cent. Mag. 23 934/2 In shaky but intelligible Spanish he asked..to see her father.

1889 W. S. Gilbert Gondoliers ii He is shaky in his spelling, so we help him if we can.

1942 T. Rattigan Flare Path iii. 150 They had rather a shaky do last night.

1943 C. H. Ward-Jackson It's a Piece of Cake 54 A shaky-do, any occurrence that has serious consequences or just escapes them. This may vary from a pilot temporarily losing control of his Whitley as a result of being hit by flak, to an erk who is out of station bounds without a pass and only just avoids a Service policeman.

1944 T. H. Wisdom Triumph over Tunisia ix. 79 No. 18 Squadron, which had been involved in many similar ‘Shaky do's’, was asked to lay on the raid.

1949 F. Maclean Eastern Approaches ii. vi. 244 The earth all round was kicked up by a burst from the plane's tail-gunner... ‘This,’ said the Australian, ‘is going to be a shaky do.’