shakedown

• shake-down

Deverbal from shake down. An improvised bed would originally have been made by shaking down straw.

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shakedown (plural shakedowns)

1. (slang) Extortion, especially through blackmail

   What is this, a shakedown?

   • 2021 August 25, Tassanee Vejpongsa, “Four Thai Police Charged in Drug Suspect’s Death After Video Surfaces”, in Bloomberg‎, Bloomberg, retrieved 2021-08-25:

     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.

2. (slang) A thorough search; a frisk
3. A trial or test period, especially of a ship or aircraft
4. An improvised bed.
   • 1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 79:

     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.

   • 1915, W. Somerset Maugham, Of Human Bondage:

     "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."

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

     ‘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.’

shakedown

1. that tests the performance of a ship or aircraft

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