A handshake is a short ritual in which two people grasp each other's right or left hands, often accompanied by a brief up and down movement of the grasped hands. Its origins are unclear, although Philip A. Busterson's seminal 1978 work Social Rituals of the British traces its roots back to Sir Walter Raleigh, claiming he introduced the custom into the British Court during the late 16th Century.

The handshake is initiated when the two hands touch, immediately. It is commonly done upon meeting, greeting, parting, offering congratulations, or completing an agreement. Its purpose is to convey trust, balance, and equality. blank">men.style.com - GQ Style Guy, June 2000 Handshakes possibly originated as a gesture showing that the hand holds no weapon.

In _Anglophone countries, shaking hands is considered the standard greeting in business situations. In casual non-business situations, men are more likely to shake hands than women. It is considered to be in poor taste to show dominance with too strong a handshake ; conversely, too weak a handshake (sometimes referred to as a "limp fish" or "dead fish" handshake) is also considered unseemly due to people perceiving it as a sign of weakness.

Atlantic City, New Jersey Mayor Joseph Lazarow was recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records for a July 1977 publicity stunt, in which the mayor shook more than 11,000 hands in a single day, breaking the record previously held by President Theodore Roosevelt, who had set the record with 8,513 handshakes at a White House reception on January 1, 1907.

"Shake" is a europop song written by the Peter Hartman, Jan Langhoff and Linda Holmeberg and recorded by the Dutch singer EliZe. The song was released as EliZe's first single by EliZe from the her debut album In Control, which was released in October 2006 in the Benelux. It was produced by Peter Hartman and Jan Langhoff and was proudly titled "Dancesmash" by Radio 538. This single peaked at number 32 spending 5 weeks in the Netherlands Top 40.

"Shake!" is a song by The Time, from Prince's 1990 Graffiti Bridge soundtrack. The song was originally recorded during sessions for The Time's Corporate World project from June–September, 1989. Prince played all instruments and provided backing vocals. Morris Day performs the lead vocals and Jerome Benton adds some background voices. When Warner Bros. insisted that the original line-up of The Time be involved, Corporate World was reworked into Pandemonium with new material contributed by the band. Four of the tracks ended up being reworked with the band to varying degrees and ended up on Graffiti Bridge. "Shake!", written by Day and Prince was one of these tracks. Some additional background voices are by Jana Anderson.

"Shake!" is a poppy dance offering with a keyboard line recalling 1960s dance music. Electric guitar accents are added and a modern drum machine moves the song along. The song is atypical of the usual Time sound and performed poorly as a single. The Time's ejection of Jesse Johnson from the band and departure of Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis caused the Time to again break up, and this would be there last single released as a band to date.

The song was the final single released from Graffiti Bridge and included "The Latest Fashion" as its B-side. A maxi-single was also released with four mixes of the song, as well as a remix of "The Latest Fashion". It went nowhere on the charts.

"Shake" is the third single from the Ying Yang Twins album, U.nited S.tate of A.tlanta. It features the rapper, Pitbull. The song contains a sample of "Din Daa Daa" by George Kranz.

"The Shake" is the fourth single released from the debut album United Paper People by the rock group Kisschasy. It was released on March 5, 2006.