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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

shiver.

To tremble or shake, especially when cold or frightened.

6 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

verb/ˈʃɪvɚ/General-American/ˈʃɪvə/Received-Pronunciation
  1. To tremble or shake, especially when cold or frightened.

    They stood outside for hours, shivering in the frosty air.
    The cold made me shiver.
  2. To cause to shake or tremble, as a sail, by steering close to the wind.

    transitive
Where this word comes from

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

noun/ˈʃɪvɚ/General-American/ˈʃɪvə/Received-Pronunciation
  1. The act of shivering.

    A shiver went up my spine.
  2. A bodily response to early hypothermia.

Where this word comes from

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

noun/ˈʃɪvɚ/General-American/ˈʃɪvə/Received-Pronunciation
  1. A fragment or splinter, especially of glass or stone.

  2. A fragment or splinter, especially of glass or stone. A splinter of wood embedded in the flesh

    Norfolk
  3. A thin slice; a shive.

    UK · dialectal · obsolete
  4. A variety of blue slate.

  5. A sheave or small wheel in a pulley.

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

  7. A spindle.

    UK · dialectal · obsolete
Where this word comes from

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

verb/ˈʃɪvɚ/General-American/ˈʃɪvə/Received-Pronunciation
  1. To break into splinters or fragments.

    transitive
  2. To be broken into splinters or fragments.

    intransitive
Where this word comes from

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

noun/ˈʃɪvɚ/General-American/ˈʃɪvə/Received-Pronunciation
  1. A group of sharks.

    collective
Where this word comes from

Origin uncertain

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.