shiver1
/ˈʃɪvə
/verb [no object]
Shake slightly and uncontrollably as a result of being cold, frightened, or excited: they shivered in the damp foggy cold...
- I am burning up and shivering uncontrollably, hot cold sweat draining from my flesh.
- I was just starting to wrestle out of my oversized shirt, shivering slightly in the cold bathroom, when a heard a faint knocking on the main door.
- I shivered slightly in the cold but couldn't help grinning to myself.
Synonyms
tremble, quiver, shake, shudder, quaver, quake, vibrate, palpitate, flutter, convulse
noun
1A momentary trembling movement: she gave a little shiver as the wind flicked at her bare arms the way he looked at her sent shivers down her spine...
- She sings with a power and commitment that sends shivers down your spine.
- There is a particular passage in Myth that sends shivers down my spine.
- The word Conservative still sends shivers down the spine of voters.
Synonyms
tremble, trembling, quiver, quivering, shake, start, shudder, shuddering, quaver, quake, vibration, tremor, palpitation, flutter, convulsion, twitch, jerk
1.1 (the shivers) A spell or an attack of trembling, typically as a result of fear or horror: a look that gave him the shivers...
- Anyway, I'm ill at the moment - woke up at 2.30 am yesterday morning with a very scary attack of the shivers.
- By the time she'd fully rinsed the lather off of her body, the shivers had become completely uncontrollable.
- This disability gives a lot of people the shivers, and most of them think me unable to play golf.
Derivatives
shiverer
- Okay, we're 3-2 shiverers today - two absentees like the temperature lower than I do.
- A chilling northerly wind for the early part of the afternoon had the surveyors feeling more like shiverers than twitchers.
shiveringly
- Dashing up the stairs she'd crept to her bedroom, taken a few deep breaths, and then shiveringly pulled out from underneath her shirt the object of her impromptu burglary and lo and behold!
- He understands the score's potential to produce a pleasant and shiveringly visceral response, when presented with the greatest sonic allure, and he act upon this understanding.
- And Close's nasty, shifting canterings with a shovel before he fells his unfortunate brother and humorously lops off his arm to acquire the ring were shiveringly unpleasant.
Origin
Middle English chivere, perhaps an alteration of dialect chavele 'to chatter', from Old English ceafl 'jaw'.
The Middle English spelling of this word was chivere, which is perhaps an alteration of dialect chavele ‘to chatter’, from Old English ceafl ‘jaw’, from the teeth chattering due to the cold. The sense meaning ‘to break’ or ‘small piece’ is from a Germanic root with the base idea of ‘slit, splinter. Skewer (late 17th century) may be related.
Rhymes
shiver2
/ˈʃɪvə/noun (usually shivers)
Each of the small fragments into which something such as glass is shattered when broken; a splinter.I like to look at the way that small shivers and fragments of light, escape through a teeny gap in the curtains, throwing quirky shapes upon the wall or ceiling....
- He picked the larger shivers of glass out of the cut but that just made it bleed more.
- Keep away from windows because the high winds and pressure can shatter the window, sending shivers of glass everywhere.
Synonyms
splinter, sliver, fragment, chip, shard, paring, shaving, shred, smithereen, particle, bit, piece
verb [no object]
Break into such splinters or fragments: the world seemed to shiver into a million splinters of prismatic colour...
- Yet the crystals of my summer didn't shiver into fragments.
- Something tinkles inside you, shivering, quivering, and then it breaks, shattering like a crystal constellation.
- The blade fell upon the Indian's neck and shivered into several pieces.
Phrases
shiver my timbers
Origin
Middle English: from a Germanic base meaning 'to split'; related to German Schiefer 'slate'.