to shake the plum tree

8.7

To make ripe fruit or other things fall from a tree by moving its branches quickly

idiom

: sacudir el ciruelo

Children love to shake the plum tree when the fruit is ripe in late summer.

Examples

After the storm, we had to shake the plum tree to collect the last of the fruit.
They gathered beneath the branches and began to shake the plum tree for a bigger harvest.
Don't shake the plum tree too hard!
She shakes the plum tree every summer.
Children love to shake the plum tree when the fruit is ripe in late summer.
After the storm, we had to shake the plum tree to collect the last of the fruit.
They gathered beneath the branches and began to shake the plum tree for a bigger harvest.

Synonyms

to shake

vsto shake the plum tree

916 1.0

To move quickly from side to side or up and down

is specifically about forcing ripe fruit or items from their source by vigorous movement

to succuss

vsto shake the plum tree

Archaic

9.9

To shake something hard to mix its contents

focuses on making ripe fruit or items fall from their source by force

Antonyms

to keep

∞ 1.0

To continue doing something or stay in the same state

to leave

∞ 1.6

To cause a feeling or result to remain after an event

How Forceful

to chop down

12 2.1

to strip

Specialized

1 6.5

to shake the plum tree

8.7

tap on

14 2.7

Surface Forms

shake the plum tree infinitive

shaking the plum tree present participle

shakes the plum tree third person singular

shook the plum tree past

shaken the plum tree past participle

Morphology

shake + the + plum + tree

The literal sense — causing plums to fall by shaking a tree — is directly and transparently derived from the constituents 'shake' + 'plum' + 'tree', so a B1 learner who knows the words would understand that meaning. The extended, figurative sense (forcibly extracting items or information from a source) is a metaphorical extension of the literal image: somewhat predictable but conventionalized and pragmatically variable, so it is not fully transparent.

Etymology

Shake the plum tree comes from the simple picture of people grabbing branches and shaking a plum tree so ripe plums fall down. So it now means 'to force things out of their source' or 'to get results by pushing'.