shakedown

plural shakedowns · alternative shake-down

1. slangExtortion, especially through blackmail

   What is this, a shakedown?

   1 more example

   Four Thai police officers charged with murder in connection with the deadly shakedown of a suspected drug dealer in custody were arrested Wednesday after a video clip of the incident shared on social media caused a public furor.

   2021 August 25, Tassanee Vejpongsa, “Four Thai Police Charged in Drug Suspect’s Death After Video Surfaces”, in Bloomberg, Bloomberg, retrieved 25 Aug 2021

2. slangA thorough search; a frisk
3. A trial or test period, especially of a ship or aircraft.

   It was planning to use an '807' for one day only as part of a shakedown test, ahead of the fleet's formal entry to service which is currently planned for November.

   2024 October 30, “Network News: Avanti prepares for Class 807s to enter traffic”, in RAIL, number 1021, page 12

4. An improvised bed.

   ‘You two,’ he says, ‘you're not going back tonight. […] I can make you shake-downs on the veranda and we'll have a bite to eat.’

   1974, Thea Astley, A Kindness Cup, Text Classics, published 2018, page 107

   2 more examples

   All sorts of gossip floated about; one story told was that a selector, and not the youngest of that staid and sober party, was found putting his boots into his shakedown at night, and lying outside the entrance of his tent, giving careful directions to some one to call him in time for the morning mail.

   1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 79

   "There's nowhere for me to lie down, sir," he answered, and there was in his voice a humbleness which was very distressing. -- "Don't you know anyone in the house who'll give you a shakedown?" -- "No, sir."

   1915, W. Somerset Maugham, Of Human Bondage

alternative shake-down

1. That tests the performance of a ship or aircraft.