shiver
Verbshivers, shivering, shivered
Noun pluralshivers
Formsshivers, shivering, shivered
Pluralshivers
- 1To tremble or shake slightly, especially because of cold or fear.
The hikers began to shiver as the temperature dropped after sunset.
He shivered with fear when he heard footsteps behind him.
Similartremble, shake, quiver, shudder
Note
The trembling verb has an origin nobody has settled. It is perhaps an alteration of chavel, or perhaps formed from sheaf, and it shares only its spelling with the verb for breaking into fragments. The cause usually follows with: shiver with cold, shiver with fear. Thomas Creech in 1693 already used it for moral hesitation, writing of the man who "shivered on the brink of sin".
- 2An instance of trembling or shaking, often caused by cold or fear.
A shiver of excitement passed through the crowd as the band appeared.
She felt a shiver when the door creaked open.
Similarshudder, tremor, quiver, frisson, chill
Note
Its natural companion is the spine, as in a shiver going up it. The phrase works for dread and delight alike. Robert W. Chambers's The Younger Set (1907) has "pleasant shivers" chasing over a child at play. The noun counts easily, from one shiver to a run of shivers, and it need not mean anyone is cold.
- 3An involuntary shaking of the body that occurs as an early response to hypothermia.
The first shiver signaled that his core temperature had started to fall.
Paramedics noted a violent shiver, an early warning of hypothermia.
Note
Medicine treats it as a sign rather than a feeling. It is the involuntary, rhythmic contraction of skeletal muscle that begins when core temperature falls, raising heat production against early hypothermia. In clinical use the emotional coloring of the everyday noun drops away, and a shiver is something observed and recorded.
- 4To break apart into splinters or small fragments.
The vase shivered against the stone tiles, scattering shards everywhere.
Cannon fire could shiver a mast in a single shot.
Similarshatter, splinter, smash
Note
The splintering verb works both ways: a thing shivers, or something shivers it. In Arthur Conan Doyle, a plaster Napoleon lies "shivered into fragments". Herman Melville offers to "shiver fifty lances", and Christopher Hitchens's Hitch-22 has an earthquake "shivering the structures of traditional order". In a sentence like "the glass shivered", only context separates shattering from mere trembling.
- 5A sliver or splinter broken off something, especially glass or stone.
A shiver of stone flew off as the chisel struck the block.
Tiny shivers of glass glittered on the workshop floor.
Similarsplinter, fragment, shard, sliver, chip
Note
This is a different word from the trembling one, though it is spelled the same. It is Germanic in origin and cognate with Old High German scivaro, whose German descendant Schiefer means "slate". The idea underneath is something that splits off. It usually counts and often comes in the plural, as in shivers of glass or a shiver of stone. It is the noun behind the verb for smashing to pieces.
- 6A group of sharks, especially a number of them gathered or moving together.
Just as geese form a gaggle and lions a pride, sharks form a shiver.
A shiver of sharks gathered around the whale carcass.
The documentary captured an entire shiver hunting in formation.
Similarschool
Note
A collective noun with its own uncertain origin, linked by no known line to either the trembling or the splintering word. It does its work in the frame "a shiver of sharks". Without the "of sharks", a reader will take it as one of the word's other meanings, so keep the phrase whole on first use.
- 7To make a sail shake or flap by steering too close to the wind.
A careless turn can shiver the mainsail until it flaps loudly.
She shivered the canvas on purpose to slow the boat near the dock.
Similarluff
Note
Sailors turned the trembling verb around. Here the helmsman does the shivering to the sail, steering so close to the wind that the canvas no longer fills and its edge flaps. Unlike the everyday verb, it is transitive, so the sail is the object: you shiver the mainsail. It can be a deliberate move to spill power and slow the boat.
- 8A small wedge, such as one used to fasten the bolt of a window shutter.
A loose shiver let the shutter bang all through the storm.
The carpenter carved a fresh shiver to secure the rattling bolt.
Similarwedge
- 9A sheave, or small grooved wheel, inside a pulley over which a rope or cable runs.
He greased the shiver so the halyard would run smoothly.
A cracked shiver can jam the entire block and tackle.
Similarsheave
Note
A seaman's name for the sheave, the grooved wheel turning on its pin inside a block, with the line riding over it. It shares the deck with the sail-shaking verb but not an ancestor. That verb belongs to the trembling word, while this noun belongs to the Germanic word for a split-off piece. A jammed shiver is a block problem, not a sail problem.
- 10A type of blue slate, the fine-grained rock that splits easily into flat sheets.
The quarry yielded a fine blue shiver prized for roofing.
Masons valued shiver for the way it split into clean, flat slabs.
Similarslate
Note
The quarry sense sits closest to the root. The Germanic word behind the fragment meaning has a German cousin, Schiefer, that simply means slate. Shiver names a blue variety of that rock, valued for splitting cleanly into thin sheets. It is often used without an article, as the name of a material, much as one speaks of granite or marble.
- 11A splinter of wood lodged in the skin or flesh.
He winced as a shiver from the old fence dug into his finger.
The nurse removed a shiver of oak buried beneath the boy's nail.
Note
A regional narrowing of the fragment meaning is recorded in Lincolnshire and Norfolk speech. There a shiver is specifically the bit of wood that lodges in a finger. Elsewhere the ordinary word is splinter, and a listener from outside those counties may hear "I've got a shiver" as a complaint about the cold.
Less common meanings
- 12A thin slice cut from something, especially bread.
The maid laid a shiver of cold meat beside the bread.
a shiver of their own loaf
1655, Thomas Fuller, The Church-history of BritainNote
A kitchen word that has dropped out of use: obsolete, and once dialectal in Britain. Thomas Fuller's The Church-history of Britain (1655) speaks of "a shiver of their own loaf". Its close relative shive names the same thin cut more briefly. In modern writing it reads as period color, so for an everyday thin piece, say slice.
- 13A slender rod or pin on which something turns or around which thread is wound; a spindle.
The spinner fitted a new shiver to her wheel before the day's work.
Thread slipped from the shiver and tangled on the floor.
Note
Like the thin-slice meaning, this usage is obsolete and was once confined to British dialect. Here a shiver is a spindle, the slender rod on which something turns or thread is wound. Anyone quoting it today should gloss it, since the trembling verb is what a modern reader will hear first.
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Origins
The origin is uncertain; it is perhaps an alteration of "chavel," or a frequentative of "sheaf."
From a Germanic word, probably present in Old English though unattested, cognate with Old High German "scivaro" (German "Schiefer," meaning slate).
Origin uncertain