tremulous
/ˈtrɛmjʊləs
/adjective
1Shaking or quivering slightly: Barbara’s voice was tremulous...
- His voice softens and opens up, threading a tremulous quaver through its easy melody.
- Just remember as you hear the tremulous reporter, voice quaking in empathy, why the farmer is crying.
- He lowered it slightly and said in a tremulous voice as he gazed at the snow covered ground, ‘I pity you.’
Synonyms
shaky, trembling, shaking, unsteady, quavering, wavering, quivering, quivery, quaking;
nervous, weak
informal trembly, all of a tremble
1.1Timid; nervous: he gave a tremulous smile...
- On a timid, tremulous performance of REM's Everybody Hurts, she sounds like a reticent schoolgirl suddenly asked to perform at Live Aid.
- 'My life is hard enough as it is,’ she offered with a tremulous smile his direction.
- ‘I guess we've both been trying to keep things under wraps,’ she suggested with a tremulous smile.
Synonyms
timid, diffident, shy, hesitant, uncertain, timorous, unconfident, fearful, frightened, scared;
nervous, anxious, apprehensive
Derivatives
tremulously
/ adverb ...- ‘His race,’ Nichols wrote tremulously this spring, ‘is being read as a measure of the potency of progressive politics in America.’
- Her increasing tendresse for the handsomest young officer leads to some regulation song and dance numbers, crooning, scurrying in formation around and about the countryside and melting tremulously into each other's arms.
- We watched local farmers slowly make their way through rice terraces, and a baby goat - umbilical cord still attached - bleat for its mother while tremulously attempting to walk.
tremulousness
- The result includes anything from dry mouth, nausea, and fatigue to dizziness, headache, diarrhea, and my personal favourite, tremulousness.
- This is no time to listen to the voices of tremulousness, indecision, compromise and fear.
- The patient experienced muscle weakness, tremulousness, ‘hot and cold’ feelings, paresthesias, diaphoresis, shivering, and frontal lobe headache starting 24 hours after discontinuation.
Origin
Early 17th century: from Latin tremulus (from tremere 'tremble') + -ous.