SHIVER • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Shiver

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/ʃˈɪvər/ Listen

noun

Shiver n.

One of the small pieces, or splinters, into which a brittle thing is broken by sudden violence; generally used in the plural. "All to shivers dashed."

A thin slice; a shive. (Obs. or Prov. Eng.) "A shiver of their own loaf." "Of your soft bread, not but a shiver."

(Geol.) A variety of blue slate.

(Naut.) A sheave or small wheel in a pulley.

A small wedge, as for fastening the bolt of a window shutter.

A spindle. (Obs. or Prov. Eng.)

Shiver n. The act of shivering or trembling.

verb

Shiver v. t. (past & past part. shivered; pres. part. shivering) To break into many small pieces, or splinters; to shatter; to dash to pieces by a blow; as, to shiver a glass goblet. "All the ground With shivered armor strown."

Shiver v. t. (Naut.) To cause to shake or tremble, as a sail, by steering close to the wind.

Shiver v. i. To separate suddenly into many small pieces or parts; to be shattered. "There shiver shafts upon shields thick." "The natural world, should gravity once cease,... would instantly shiver into millions of atoms."

Shiver v. i. To tremble; to vibrate; to quiver; to shake, as from cold or fear. "Prometheus is laid On icy Caucasus to shiver." "The man that shivered on the brink of sin, Thus steeled and hardened, ventures boldly in."

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Etymology of 'Shiver'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Shiver" Quotes from Famous Books

... swing the rope; and as it went to and fro it sent small stones rattling down and then splashing into the water, making me shiver. But they evidently fell clear of Denham, who sent a thrill of encouragement through me when he now spoke ...

— Charge! - A Story of Briton and Boer • George Manville Fenn

... me and stood looking at me. His hands nervously adjusted his glasses on his nose. He took one of the tabloids and shakily lifted his whisky and water to wash it down his throat. He coughed and sputtered, and with a shiver turned away from me. He lifted the ...

— Hurricane Island • H. B. Marriott Watson

... skin, as though the blood had been suddenly congealed. The eyes were wide open, and their glassy stare added not a little to the apparent terror and suffering of the face. It was not a pleasant sight, and after a moment, I turned my eyes away with a shiver ...

— The Mystery Of The Boule Cabinet - A Detective Story • Burton Egbert Stevenson

... feels sure of them; he sees that you may sacrifice to a god for years, you may wrap him up—or more properly speaking, the object in which he resides—in your only cloth on chilly nights while you shiver yourself; you and your children, and your mother, and your sister and her children, may go hungry that food may rot upon his shrine; and yet, in some hour of dire necessity, the power will not come and save you—because he has been lured away by some richer ...

— Travels in West Africa • Mary H. Kingsley

... sufficiently to dine in the Straits, but the Atlantic swell soon sent them below. The decks were deserted, for many of these people were returning to England after long years in India, and the first chill northern breeze they met made them shiver while it ...

— The Grey Lady • Henry Seton Merriman

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