shake down
verb1
To cause something to fall down by shaking it, or something it is attached to.
- shake down apples from an apple tree.
2
To shake someone so money falls from their pockets.
3
Broadly, Slang To extort money from (someone) by means of threats.
- He left after shaking her down for four bits for carrying the bags.1966 March, Thomas Pynchon, The Crying of Lot 49, New York, N.Y.: Bantam Books, published November 1976, →ISBN, page 16:
- At 58.9K, he'd be handing over practically nine thousand dollars a year to California and to the county for the privilege of being shaken down by these thicknecks.1996, Michael Drinkard, Disobedience, page 64:
4
Slang To search exhaustively.
5
To subject something to a shakedown test.