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I remember someone once telling me a saying in the form: "Is the [blank] worth the shake?"

The meaning was similar to the saying, "Is the end worth the means?"

I can't remember what the [blank] word was though. Has anyone heard of this saying before?

I think the term "shake" in this sense might mean amount of work, or hustle.

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Thinking this though myself, the word stick makes sense to me here. "Is the stick worth the shake?" I'm not sure if anyone else would agree though :) – Sandro Mar 8 '12 at 18:32
I've never heard of it, and neither, apparently, has Google. As for stick, the only thing that comes up from googling "is the stick worth the shake" is this comment. – Daniel δ Mar 8 '12 at 18:48
Too localised. There's not a single instance of "worth the shake" in Google Books, and checking on the Internet at large shows nothing relevant in the first several dozen occurrences. – FumbleFingers Mar 8 '12 at 19:06
Agree with FumbleFingers - the apparently correct answer didn't exist in cyberspace until 5 minutes ago. – Daniel δ Mar 8 '12 at 19:28
It's possible that the phrase is localized. Maybe even adapted from a Spanish variation of the phrase (A Mexican friend told me the saying). I just remember having heard it and immediately thinking that the phrase made sense, but I can't remember the phrase itself. Weird how the mind works sometimes, right? Should I close this question? – Sandro Mar 8 '12 at 19:44
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closed as too localized by FumbleFingers, Daniel δ, jwpat7, kiamlaluno, Will Hunting Mar 20 '12 at 2:10

This question is unlikely to help any future visitors; it is only relevant to a small geographic area, a specific moment in time, or an extraordinarily narrow situation that is not generally applicable to the worldwide audience of the internet. For help making this question more broadly applicable, see the FAQ.

1 Answer

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"Is the shit worth the shake" - It's an Irish expression.

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This is the only instance of it on the internet, though. – Daniel δ Mar 8 '12 at 19:27
Sure we're only getting the internet over here now! Must be quite a colloquial phrase. – Peddler Mar 8 '12 at 19:35
This isn't the phrase I was looking for, but it's an interesting phrase though. Can you explain the meaning or how it's used? – Sandro Mar 8 '12 at 19:45
It's quite crude, but basically like you say, does the end justify the means. – Peddler Mar 8 '12 at 19:57
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"Jayz Lad, did you try shift her?" - "Nah man, I said to myself, is the shit worth the shake? And then I legged it away from her"- Sorry that's the kind of context we would use it in, in Dublin. – Peddler Mar 8 '12 at 20:00

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