shiver

See also: Shiver

English

Pronunciation

• Audio (US):

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• IPA^(key): /ˈʃɪvɚ/
• IPA^(key): /ˈʃɪvə/
• Rhymes: -ɪvə(ɹ)

Etymology 1

Origin uncertain, perhaps an alteration of chavel, or a frequentive of sheaf.

Verb

shiver (third-person singular simple present shivers, present participle shivering, simple past and past participle shivered)

1. To tremble or shake, especially when cold or frightened.
   • 1693, Thomas Creech, The thirteenth Satire of Juvenal

     The man that shivered on the brink of sin, / Thus steeled and hardened, ventures boldly in.

   • Template:RQ:Charlotte Brontë Jane Eyre
   • 1921 June, Margery Williams, “The Velveteen Rabbit: Or How Toys Become Real”, in Harper’s Bazar, volume LVI, number 6 (2504 overall), New York, N.Y.: International Magazine Company, →ISSN, →OCLC:

     He was shivering a little, for he had always been used to sleeping in a proper bed, and by this time his coat had worn so thin and threadbare from hugging that it was no longer any protection to him.

   • 2013 June 7, David Simpson, “Fantasy of navigation”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 26, page 36:

     Like most human activities, ballooning has sponsored heroes and hucksters and a good deal in between. For every dedicated scientist patiently recording atmospheric pressure and wind speed while shivering at high altitudes, there is a carnival barker with a bevy of pretty girls willing to dangle from a basket or parachute down to earth.

   They stood outside for hours, shivering in the frosty air.

2. (nautical, transitive) To cause to shake or tremble, as a sail, by steering close to the wind.

Derived terms

• ashiver
• shiverer
• shiver my timbers
• shivering owl

Translations

to tremble or shake

• Albanian: fërgëlloj (sq)
• Bulgarian: треперя (bg) (treperja)
• Catalan: esgarrifança f, calfred (ca) m
• Chickasaw: yollichi
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 哆嗦 (zh) (duōsuo), 顫抖／颤抖 (zh) (chàndǒu), 颤抖 (zh) (chàndǒu or zhàndǒu), 發抖／发抖 (zh) (fādǒu), 发抖 (zh) (fādǒu), 顫慄／颤栗 (zh) (zhànlì), 颤栗 (zh) (zhànlì), 震顫／震颤 (zh) (zhènchàn), 震颤 (zh) (zhènchàn)

• Danish: skælve
• Dutch: rillen (nl), bibberen (nl), huiveren (nl)
• Esperanto: frostotremi, tremi
• Finnish: hytistä (fi), väristä (fi)
• French: frissonner (fr)
• Galician: bracuñar (gl), aterecer (gl), entanguecer (gl), tremelicar, tiritar, estremecer (gl)
• German: zittern (de)
• Greek: ριγώ (el) (rigó), τουρτουρίζω (el) (tourtourízo)

  Ancient: ῥιγόω (rhigóō)

• Hungarian: didereg (hu) (with cold), reszket (hu) (with fear)
• Icelandic: skjálfa (is)
• Italian: rabbrividire (it), tremare (it)
• Japanese: 震える (ja) (ふるえる, furueru)
• Kurdish:

  Central Kurdish: لەرزین (ckb) (lerzîn)

• Maori: turiwātaitai, turiwātautau, hāwiniwini (with cold), kūnāwiri, hurapa, tuawiri, harawiri, hūnonoi, tūhauwiri, harawiniwini, kūnāwiri, korohāwini, hunōnoi (with cold)
• Mongolian: агзайх (mn) (agzajx)
• Norman: frémi
• Norwegian: skjelve (no)
• Occitan: tremolar (oc), estrementir
• Persian: لرزیدن (fa) (larzidan)
• Polish: drżeć (pl)
• Portuguese: tiritar (pt), tremer (pt)
• Romanian: tremura (ro)
• Russian: дрожа́ть (ru) (drožátʹ), трясти́сь (ru) (trjastísʹ)
• Spanish: tiritar (es), temblar de frío
• Swedish: darra (sv), huttra (sv)
• Tamil: நடுங்கு (ta) (naṭuṅku)
• Ukrainian: тремтіти (uk) (tremtity)
• Vietnamese: run (vi)
• Yiddish: ציטערן (tsitern)

Noun

shiver (plural shivers)

1. The act of shivering.

   A shiver went up my spine.

   • 1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter I, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:

     But they had already discovered that he could be bullied, and they had it their own way; and presently Selwyn lay prone upon the nursery floor, impersonating a ladrone while pleasant shivers chased themselves over Drina, whom he was stalking.

2. (medicine) A bodily response to early hypothermia.^Wp

Derived terms

• send shivers down someone's spine
• shiver my timbers

Translations

the act or result of shivering

• Bulgarian: треперене (bg) n (treperene)
• Catalan: calfred (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 哆嗦 (zh) (duōsuo), 顫抖／颤抖 (zh) (chàndǒu), 颤抖 (zh) (chàndǒu or zhàndǒu), 發抖／发抖 (zh) (fādǒu), 发抖 (zh) (fādǒu), 顫慄／颤栗 (zh) (zhànlì), 颤栗 (zh) (zhànlì), 震顫／震颤 (zh) (zhènchàn), 震颤 (zh) (zhènchàn)

• Czech: třes (cs) m, třas m, třesení n
• Esperanto: tremo
• Finnish: hytinä, värinä (fi), väristys (fi)
• French: frisson (fr) m
• Galician: calafrío (gl) m, arrepío m
• German: Zittern n
• Italian: brivido (it) m, tremore (it) m
• Japanese: 震え (ふるえ, furue)
• Kazakh: діріл (dırıl)
• Latin: tremor m
• Maori: tūhauwiri
• Old French: friçon m
• Persian: لرز (fa) (larz)
• Polish: drżenie (pl) n
• Portuguese: calafrio (pt) m, tremedeira f, tremura f
• Russian: дрожь (ru) f (drožʹ), дрожа́ние (ru) n (drožánije)
• Spanish: escalofrío (es) m, calofrío (es) m, estremecimiento (es) m, estremezón m (Latin America), espeluzno (es) m (Mexico), repeluzno m

a bodily response to cold

• Bulgarian: тръпки (bg) f pl (trǎpki)
• French: frisson (fr) m
• Maori: hurapa, tuawiri, harawiri, hūnonoi, tūhauwiri, tūngāwiri, harawiniwini, hāwiniwini, kūnāwiri, korohāwini
• Persian: لرز (fa) (larz)
• Spanish: escalofrío (es) m, calofrío (es) m, tiritón m

See also

• frisson

Etymology 2

From a Germanic word, probably present in Old English though unattested, cognate with Old High German scivaro (German Schiefer (“slate”)).

Noun

shiver (plural shivers)

1. A fragment or splinter, especially of glass or stone.
2. (obsolete, UK, dialect) A thin slice; a shive.
   • 1655, Thomas Fuller, The Church-history of Britain; […], London: […] Iohn Williams […], →OCLC, (please specify |book=I to XI):

     a shiver of their own loaf

3. (geology) A variety of blue slate.
4. (nautical) A sheave or small wheel in a pulley.
5. A small wedge, as for fastening the bolt of a window shutter.
6. (obsolete, UK, dialect) A spindle.

Translations

a stony or glassy fragment

• Bulgarian: отломка (bg) f (otlomka)
• Italian: scheggia (it) f

Verb

shiver (third-person singular simple present shivers, present participle shivering, simple past and past participle shivered)

1. To break into splinters or fragments.
   • 1614–1615, Homer, “The First Booke of Homers Odysses”, in Geo[rge] Chapman, transl., Homer’s Odysses. […], London: […] Rich[ard] Field [and William Jaggard], for Nathaniell Butter, published 1615, →OCLC, page 1:

     The man, O Muse, inform, that many a way / Wound with his wisdom to his wished stay; / That wandered wondrous far, when he the town / Of sacred Troy had sack'd and shivered down; […]

   • 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “chapter 24”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC:

     But if, in the face of all this, you still declare that whaling has no aesthetically noble associations connected with it, then am I ready to shiver fifty lances with you there, and unhorse you with a split helmet every time.

   • 1904, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventure of the Six Napoleons, Norton (2005), page 1034:

     he found a plaster bust of Napoleon, which stood with several other works of art upon the counter, lying shivered into fragments.

   • 2010, Christopher Hitchens, Hitch-22, Atlantic 2011, p. 183:

     A whole series of fault lines radiated away from this Lisbon earthquake, all of them shivering the structures of traditional order.

Etymology 3

Origin uncertain

Noun

shiver (plural shivers)

1. Collective noun for a group of sharks

Anagrams

• hivers, shrive