as in plucked
to rob by the use of trickery or threats
the rumor is that he started his career shaking people down as an enforcer for the mob
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Example Sentences
Recent Examples of Synonyms for shook down
Verb
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Ortega, 22, hit the red carpet in a look plucked straight from Givenchy's runway show, which featured several oversized jewels that draped against her chest and upper body.—
Starr Bowenbank,
PEOPLE,
24 Sep. 2025 -
You got plucked from obscurity to do this project.—
Chris Lee,
Vulture,
24 Sep. 2025
Verb
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Passed over to his hapless son (Dacre Montgomery), our (anti-)hero wires a shotgun to his head and takes him hostage, claiming that the organization’s business maneuvers cheated him out of a substantial fortune.—
Radhika Seth,
Vogue,
5 Sep. 2025
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The woman lives alone, AFP added, citing local media outlets, and was ultimately cheated out of approximately 1 million yen, or about $6,700.—
Jillian Frankel,
PEOPLE,
4 Sep. 2025
Verb
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Congressional Democrats feel stung by the mass layoffs and program cuts that followed the last stopgap spending deal in March.—
Ronald J. Hansen,
AZCentral.com,
25 Sep. 2025
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At a family gathering in Huntsville, Alabama, I was stung by the divisive image on my 16-year-old relative’s T-shirt.—
Sabrina S. Fu,
Twin Cities,
18 Sep. 2025
Verb
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At those rates, without a significant change in policy or health care costs, the general fund would be squeezed to nearly nothing in the next 15 years, according to an analysis by the governor's Office of State Planning and Budgeting.—
Nick Coltrain,
Denver Post,
22 Sep. 2025
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During the presidency of Richard Nixon, public servants at the DOJ felt squeezed between what the president wanted and what the law required.—
Carrie Johnson,
NPR,
22 Sep. 2025
Verb
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Agents grabbed one man who appeared to be charging up the driveway, pinned him to the ground and hustled him behind the gate with his hands behind his back.—
Caroline Kubzansky,
Boston Herald,
19 Sep. 2025
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Farnaz Farjam, one of the show’s executive producers, told Deadline that the production hustled to find a way to capture all three elements.—
Peter White,
Deadline,
1 Sep. 2025
Verb
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If a player is left in a room, they will be stuck there, losing a point each round, until another player returns to the room to release them.—
Kayti Burt,
Time,
26 Sep. 2025
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That relevance has stuck in Kansas City three weeks later.—
Kansas City Star,
Kansas City Star,
26 Sep. 2025
Verb
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Republican businessman Jason Dickerson beat Democrat Debra Shigley in the Tuesday runoff after no candidate in a seven-person field won a majority to take the seat outright in August.—
Robert Birsel,
MSNBC Newsweek,
24 Sep. 2025
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Cleveland’s magical run continued Tuesday night, as the Guardians rallied to beat Tarik Skubal and the Detroit Tigers 5-2 and forge a tie for first place in the AL Central.—
Zack Meisel,
New York Times,
24 Sep. 2025
Verb
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And then everyone else beyond those 35 million people also get screwed, because when all of that money gets pulled out of the health care system, prices go up for everyone, hospitals close.—
Nik Popli,
Time,
26 Sep. 2025
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And also just seeing and showing to folks that this corruption shows up in the bills that are passed that are then creating loopholes for special interests while you're getting screwed.—
Jason Lemon,
MSNBC Newsweek,
21 Sep. 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Shook down.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/shook%20down. Accessed 30 Sep. 2025.
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