If you shake out a cloth or a piece of clothing, you hold it by one of its edges and move it up and down one or more times, in order to open it out, make it flat, or remove dust.
While the water was heating she decided to shake out the carpet. [VERBPARTICLE noun]
I took off my poncho, shook it out, and hung it on a peg. [VERB noun PARTICLE]
2. See also shake-out
See full dictionary entry for shake
shake-out
Word forms: plural shake-outsregional note: in AM, use shakeout
countable noun [usually singular]
A shake-out is a major set of changes in a system or an organization which results in a large number ofcompanies closing or a large number of people losing their jobs.
[journalism]
This should be the year of a big shake-out in Italian banking.
The party needs a shake-out, if it is to be the driving-force of the new politics.
shake-out in British English
noun
the process of reducing the number of people in a workforce in order to lower the costs of a company