Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To quake; tremble; shake tremulously; shudder; shiver.
  • To flutter or be agitated with a tremulous motion.
  • Synonyms Quake, etc. See shiver.
  • noun The act or state of quivering; a tremulous motion; a tremor; a flutter; a shudder; a shiver.
  • Nimble; active; spry.
  • noun A case for holding arrows or crossbow-bolts.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A case or sheath for arrows to be carried on the person.
  • noun The act or state of quivering; a tremor.
  • adjective obsolete Nimble; active.
  • intransitive verb To shake or move with slight and tremulous motion; to tremble; to quake; to shudder; to shiver.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb intransitive To shake or move with slight and tremulous motion; to tremble; to quake; to shudder; to shiver.
  • adjective archaic Nimble, active.
  • noun weaponry A container for arrows, crossbow bolts or darts, such as those fired from a bow, crossbow or blowgun.
  • noun figuratively A ready storage location for figurative tools or weapons.
  • noun obsolete The collective noun for cobras.
  • noun Shaking or moving with a slight trembling motion.
  • noun mathematics A multidigraph.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun an almost pleasurable sensation of fright
  • noun case for holding arrows
  • noun the act of vibrating
  • verb shake with fast, tremulous movements
  • noun a shaky motion
  • verb move with or as if with a regular alternating motion
  • verb move back and forth very rapidly

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English quiveren, probably from the adjective.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English cwiver, from Old English *cwifer

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English quiver, from Anglo-Norman quiveir (compare Old French quivre, cuevre, coivre "quiver"), of Germanic origin (perhaps via Late Latin cucurum "quiver"), from Low Frankish *kokari "quiver, case for arrows" from Proto-Germanic *kukārijaz, from Proto-Germanic *kukur- (“container, case”). Akin to Old High German kohhar, kohhari "quiver" (German Köcher "quiver"), Old Saxon kokari "quiver", Old Dutch cocar "quiver" (Dutch koker "quiver"), Old English cocer, cocur "quiver, container, case, sheath". More at cocker.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word quiver.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • Then Crown'd again thir gold'n Harps they took,

    Harps ever tun'd, that glittering by thir side

    Like Quivers hung ...

    Milton, Paradise Lost III

    December 19, 2006

  • my favorite word from my trashy novel era..... "his manhood quivered at the sight of her virginal breast"

    September 15, 2007

  • ...and don't forget that ever-racy color: vermillion. ;oP

    September 15, 2007

  • A group of cobras

    November 16, 2007

  • A case for holding or carrying arrows, or the arrows carried in said case. May also refer to a collection of surfboards or skateboards.

    Finally, it is a term that a fundamentalist Christian sect uses to describe their movement to have as many babies as possible -- Full Quiver Theology, based on the reading of Psalm 127: 3-5: "Children are a heritage of the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward. As arrows in a soldier's hand, so are the sons of the young. Blessed is the man who has filled his quiver with them."

    February 22, 2008

  • "...'Mud?' His leper's caution quivered. 'I need soap, not more dirt.'..."

    Lord Foul's Bane

    July 29, 2012