the.com/no great shakes
Praise so faint it could flatline on a heart monitor.
means Not especially good or impressive — mediocre, run-of-the-mill, nothing to write home about.
from First shows up in English in the early 1800s, and nobody can pin down the exact source with certainty. One popular guess ties it to dice-shaking in gambling — a poor roll being 'no great shakes.' Another points to 'shake' once meaning a moment or a deal, so something of 'no great shakes' was of no great consequence. Both are plausible, neither is confirmed, so the honest answer is: origin murky, usage clear since the 1800s.
- origin theory
- possibly from dice gambling, a weak shake meant nothing
- peak era
- common slang by the early 1800s
- tone
- polite way to call something mediocre
- usage trick
- always negative, never say just shakes