: an act or instance of shaking up
specifically
: an extensive and often drastic reorganization
shook up; shaken up; shaking up; shakes up
2
: to jar by or as if by a physical shock
the collision shook up both drivers
3
: to effect an extensive and often drastic reorganization of
Synonyms of shake-up
Examples of shake-up in a Sentence
Verb
the news that we had failed the auto inspection shook us up
Recent Examples on the Web
Andrew Cunningham, ArsTechnica, 18 May 2026
Cooper, who also hosts a news program on CNN, announced in February his plans to leave CBS, months after an internal shake-up that followed the arrival of Editor in Chief Bari Weiss.
—Cerys Davies, Los Angeles Times, 18 May 2026
Christopher Keating, Hartford Courant, 16 May 2026
He was shaken up by the incident, Moser said.
—Kendrick Calfee, Kansas City Star, 16 May 2026
See All Example Sentences for shake-up
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Noun
Some of these changes are available in the current Windows Insider Preview builds in the Experimental channel (which replaced the Canary and Dev channels in Microsoft’s latest beta program shake-up).
—Andrew Cunningham, ArsTechnica, 18 May 2026
Cooper, who also hosts a news program on CNN, announced in February his plans to leave CBS, months after an internal shake-up that followed the arrival of Editor in Chief Bari Weiss.
—Cerys Davies, Los Angeles Times, 18 May 2026
Verb
McCaughey’s entrance shook up the race in January in what some had expected to be a two-candidate battle between Stewart and Fazio.
—Christopher Keating, Hartford Courant, 16 May 2026
He was shaken up by the incident, Moser said.
—Kendrick Calfee, Kansas City Star, 16 May 2026
See All Example Sentences for shake-up
Cite this Entry
“Shake-up.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/shake-up. Accessed 20 May. 2026.
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