Hacker News Reader

Comment by Groxx | Hacker News Reader

huh. that's basically the opposite of what I'd think of it as - on the American side of things, I read that as "shake them and see what falls out", i.e. see what they're hiding.

I'm also not sure how to search for that kind of phrase though. "a good shake" / "give them a good shake" doesn't seem to find anything relevant in my google. Anyone know of effective ways to search for culturally-idiomatic phrases?

View on HN

That's because the more usual form is "a fair shake." Here is a definition: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/a%20fair%20shake

> informal : a fair deal : fair treatment

> The judge gave him a fair shake, requiring him to perform community service.

> She expected to get a fair shake from her boss.

That one I recognize, yeah. Though in retrospect it's rather similar sounding...

From usage in this scenario, the actual term you want to search for is "fair shake". You're thinking of "shake down" or possibly "shaking the tree" which is why it seems odd.

Yes, 'fair shake' is the term. Wiktionary defines it as "Reasonable, unbiased treatment; a fair deal." and provides examples from both American and British newspapers, so it seems to be used on both sides of the Atlantic.

I’ve had good luck with https://english.stackexchange.com/ for questions like that, although may need to ask it yourself rather than find it in the archive. No doubt there’s reddit or two that are relevant as well.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com