to shake hands
Preserved but no longer current.
Meaning · English
To salute by giving a hand received into your own a shake; to bid adieu. Fortune and Antony part here; even here Do we shake hands.
Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)
Sources & notes
Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.
Common questions
What does “to shake hands” mean?
To salute by giving a hand received into your own a shake; to bid adieu. Fortune and Antony part here; even here Do we shake hands.
Is “to shake hands” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.