shake hands

present singular third person shakes hands · participle present shaking hands · past shook hands · participle past shaken hands

1. To grasp another person's hands as an expression of greeting, farewell, agreement, etc.

   If political calculation so required, he could pelt a man with mud one day and shake hands with him the next.

   1978 [1976], Leszek Kołakowski, translated by P[aul] S[teven] Falla, Main Currents of Marxism, volume II: The Golden Age, Oxford: Clarendon Press, translation of Główne nurty marksizmu: rozwój (in Polish), →ISBN, →OCLC, page 522

   2 more examples

   Gerald was enthusiastic. After a while they shook hands, it being time to separate. And for a long time Selwyn sat there alone in the visitors' room, absent-eyed, facing the blazing fire of cannel coal.

   1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter II, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC

   Shaking hands is probably the most common form of social touch in the U.S., and it’s thought to have originated many centuries ago as assurance that neither party was carrying a weapon.

   2020 May 27, Mandy Oaklander, “The Coronavirus Killed the Handshake and the Hug. What Will Replace Them?”, in Time

2. figurativelyTo part, to say farewell.

   ⁠But thou and I have shaken hands, ⁠Till growing winters lay me low; ⁠My paths are in the fields I know, And thine in undiscover’d lands.

   1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto XXXIX”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 61

1. Irelandno pluralan instance of shaking hands; a handshake

   Many a shake hands did I get from the neighbours’ sons, wishing me joy

   1834, William Carleton, "Shane Fadh's Wedding", Traits and Stories of the Irish Peasantry, Volume 1, p.178 (W. F. Wakeman)

   3 more examples

   He exchanged greetings with his rival, but their shake-hands was rather a cold one, and each looked the other askance, as if distrust was in their hearts.

   1909, Frederick Lawton, translation of Jules Verne, The Chase of the Golden Meteor, p.44 (London: Grant Richards)

   It was the first time a Minister ever left the country without a ceremonial goodbye and a shake hands at the airport, with the tall hats being doffed.

   1967 July 27, Jack McQuillan, Livestock Marts Bill, 1967: Second Stage (Resumed). Seanad Debates, Vol.63 No.12 p.4 col.928

   I wasn’t sure if it was goodbye, but as soon as I saw Terry I knew it was the last time I was going to see him, and the shake hands was the last shake hands I’d ever have with him.

   2015 February 1, Brian D'Arcy, quoted in Cork Examiner "Terry Wogan's friend Father Brian D'Arcy tells of their emotional final handshake"