shake down (third-person singular simple present shakes down, present participle shaking down, simple past shook down, past participle shaken down)

1. (transitive) To cause something to fall down by shaking it, or something it is attached to.

   shake down apples from an apple tree.

2. (transitive) To shake someone so money falls from their pockets.
3. (slang, transitive, by extension) To extort money from (someone) by means of threats.
   • 1966 March, Thomas Pynchon, The Crying of Lot 49, Philadelphia, Pa.; New York, N.Y.: J[oshua] B[allinger] Lippincott Company, →OCLC ↗, page 16 ↗:

     He left after shaking her down for four bits for carrying the bags.

4. (slang, transitive) To search exhaustively.
5. To subject something to a shakedown test.

• German: herunterschütteln

• German: erpressen

• German: durchsuchen, filzen