Literary notes about Shaky (AI summary)
In literature, “shaky” functions as a versatile adjective that enhances both physical description and metaphorical nuance. It can depict literal instability—a character’s trembling hand or uncertain footing as they ascend creaky steps [1] or struggle to stand erect [2]—while also conveying emotional or reputational uncertainty, as when a boast is undermined by shaky resolve [3] or when a reputation is described as less than solid [4]. Writers extend its use to signal frailty in not just human characters, but also in structures and ideas, whether referring to a shaky wharf [5] or to shaky foundations that call into question the viability of further construction [6]. This layered use makes the term effective at evoking both physical and psychological vulnerability within narrative settings.
- Stepan Trofimovitch mounted the shaky steps.
— from The possessed : by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - The boy was feeling very shaky; his strength seemed to have so far deserted him that it was with difficulty that he managed to stand erect.
— from Don Hale with the Flying Squadron by W. Crispin (William Crispin) Sheppard - He did not have the courage to go to the League and beg in, and he took refuge in a shaky boast that he had “gotten away with bucking the whole city.
— from Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis - In her girlhood and before her marriage with Tom Willard, Elizabeth had borne a somewhat shaky reputation in Winesburg.
— from Winesburg, Ohio: A Group of Tales of Ohio Small Town Life by Sherwood Anderson - Down by the stream was a dilapidated building which served for a hemp warehouse, and a shaky wharf extended out from it, into the water.
— from The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner - And she said if the foundation was shaky we could never build anything really worth while on it.
— from Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery
