shoulder

Pluralshoulders

Formsshoulders, shouldering, shouldered

1. 1
   nouncountable

   The part of the upper body that forms a fairly flat surface extending outward from the neck toward the arm.

   The hiker shifted the pack's straps to ease the strain on his shoulder.

   Years of heavy lifting left her shoulders broad and muscular.

   Note

   Everything else called a shoulder borrows its shape from this one. The word goes back to Old English sculdra and a West Germanic form of uncertain origin. It may be related to the Germanic word that gave us shield, but that link is a suggestion rather than a certainty. In the plural it carries breadth and strength (broad shoulders, a weight across both), while the singular is where a parrot sits.

2. 2
   nouncountable

   In topography, a shelflike stretch of ground that lies between a higher level of land and a lower one.

   The village grew up on a broad shoulder above the floodplain, safe from the spring floods but well below the plateau.

   On the survey map, the shoulder shows up as a band of widely spaced contour lines between two steep slopes.

   Similarterrace, shelf

   Note

   The landscape borrows the body's geometry here: the human shoulder is a nearly flat ledge running out from the neck, and this is that ledge in earth. It is easy to blur with the ground just below a peak and a sideways spur. Those are placed by the summit and by how they jut; this shoulder is placed by its flatness between two levels, and it need not lie near a summit at all.

3. 3
   nouncountable

   An often unpaved strip of land along the edge of a road, where vehicles can drive or park in an emergency.

   The driver eased onto the shoulder to let the ambulance pass.

   Loose gravel on the shoulder makes sudden stops dangerous.

   Similarverge, berm

   Note

   Several senses grow from the idea of a shelf between two levels, and on a road it is the strip where the paved surface gives way to the land beside it. It is kept distinct from the verge: Bob Foster's Birdum or Bust! (2000) has the shoulders graded and the verges cleared well back. Drivers pull onto the shoulder, stop on it, or drive along it in an emergency.

4. 4
   verbfigurativelytransitive

   To accept responsibility for something, taking it on as your own.

   The new manager will shoulder responsibility for the entire department.

   Parents shoulder the duty of raising their children well.

   Similarassume, accept, bear, carry, take

   Oppositeshirk, evade, dodge

   Note

   The figurative verb settles into a few fixed partners, above all shoulder the blame and shoulder responsibility. Its force lies in acceptance: the blame may not be wholly yours, but you take it on. Prince Harry's "I shouldered that" (2022) uses it for guilt carried privately. For money and liabilities, the burden-bearing verb is the closer fit.

5. 5
   verbfigurativelytransitive

   To take on and carry a burden, such as a financial obligation.

   Taxpayers will shoulder the expense of rebuilding the bridge.

   Small businesses shoulder rising insurance costs every year.

   Similarbear, carry, foot, absorb

6. 6
   verbtransitive

   To push a person or thing by pressing one's shoulder against it.

   The player shouldered his opponent off the ball.

   Firefighters shoulder the jammed gate until it gives way.

   Similarshove, barge, push, jostle, bump

7. 7
   verbtransitive

   To lift something and place it onto one's shoulders in order to carry it.

   She shouldered the heavy sack of grain and walked to the barn.

   Movers shoulder the wooden beams across the yard.

   Similarhoist, heft, carry, lift

8. 8
   nouncountable

   The joint where the arm meets the trunk, sometimes taken to include the muscles, tendons, and ligaments around it.

   The surgeon repaired a torn ligament in her shoulder.

   Swimmers often develop strong shoulders from years of training.

   Note

   Here shoulder names the working joint rather than the outline of the body, and it is the sense anatomy and medicine use. It can mean the joint alone or the whole assembly of muscles, tendons and ligaments around it. An injured shoulder may therefore be a damaged joint or a torn tendon. The contrast with the surface across the torso is the difference between where a bag rests and what moves the arm.

9. 9
   nouncountable or uncountable

   A cut of meat taken from the upper joint of the foreleg and the muscle surrounding it.

   The butcher boned and rolled a shoulder of lamb.

   Slow cooking turns a tough shoulder into tender, falling-apart meat.

   Note

   A butcher's and cook's word, usually built as shoulder of plus the animal: shoulder of mutton, shoulder of lamb. Swift's Laputians (1726) serve a shoulder of mutton cut into an equilateral triangle, beef as a rhomboid and pudding as a cycloid. The joke is geometry imposed on an everyday joint of meat.

10. 10
    nouncountable

    The part of a garment that covers and sits over the shoulder.

    The coat's shoulders were padded to give a broader look.

    He brushed some lint off the shoulder of his blazer.

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