give one's head a shake
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
to stop being foolish or unrealistic
Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt
Ngừng hành động một cách ngây thơ hoặc không thực tế
Machine-translated — suggest a fix
Literally: shake one's head
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
He needs to give his head a shake and face reality
AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-30; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “give one's head a shake” mean?
to stop being foolish or unrealistic Literally: shake one's head
Is “give one's head a shake” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.