quivering

American  

[kwiv-uh-ring] / ˈkwɪv ə rɪŋ /

adjective

1. trembling or shaking with a slight, rapid motion, or seeming to tremble or shake.

   The sun climbed higher and movement ceased: over the whole summit, figures lay still in the quivering heat.

   Forty hertz is really fast, like the quivering light from a faulty fluorescent bulb.

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noun

1. an act or instance of shaking with a slight but rapid motion.

   The quivering in the heart upsets the normal rhythm between the atria and the lower parts of the heart, the ventricles.

Other Word Forms

• quiveringly
  adverb
• unquivering
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of quivering

First recorded in 1530–40; quiver ¹ ( def. ) + -ing ² ( def. ) for the adjective; quiver ¹ ( def. ) + -ing ¹ ( def. ) for the noun

Explanation

Quivering means trembling. If your dog begins quivering with fear whenever someone knocks on your door, he's not much use as a guard dog. When something's shaking gently, like a candle flame shivering slightly in a breeze, you can describe it as quivering. On a windy day, you might see the leaves of trees or the ruffled feathers of a bird quivering in the wind. There are a few theories about the origin of the word quivering including the possibility that the word quiver was developed onomatopoeically — or creating a word that sounds like its meaning, like a vibrating kind of shiver.

Example Sentences

In the years since her "quivering days" she co-founded and maintained the blog "No Longer Quivering," a resource for women like her who plan on leaving the movement.

From Salon • May 11, 2021

Quivering with fear and rage in the title role, the soprano Brenda Rae acts and sounds girlish but somber, innocent but wounded.

From New York Times • Sep. 24, 2018

During a March U.S. tour that stopped at Georgetown University, Serbia’s DAH Teatar performed “The Quivering of the Rose,” a play about losing loved ones to ethnic and political conflict.

From Washington Post • Apr. 28, 2015

Amos Starkadder The hellfire preacher of Stella Gibbons's Cold Comfort Farm ministers to the congregation at the little-known Sussex-based Church of the Quivering Brethren.

From The Guardian • Sep. 3, 2010

Quivering with the uncertainty of pioneers, dreading that they might have been led astray by some minuscule miscalculation, they wrote a short note for publication and hastened to Lawrence’s house for his approval.

From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik

Related Words

• shaking
• shivering
• trembling