Word Direct Answers

What does "shiver" mean?

Shiver: A thin slice; a shive. [Obs. or Prov. Eng.] "A shiver of their own loaf." Fuller. Of your soft bread, not but a shiver. Chaucer.

Additional senses

  1. 2.(Geol.) A variety of blue slate.
  2. 3.(Naut.) A sheave or small wheel in a pulley.
  3. 4.A small wedge, as for fastening the bolt of a window shutter.
  4. 5.A spindle. [Obs. or Prov. Eng.]
  5. 6.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. Milton.
  6. 7.To separate suddenly into many small pieces or parts; to be shattered. There shiver shafts upon shields thick. Chaucer The natural world, should gravity once cease, . . . would instantly shiver into millions of atoms. Woodward.
  7. 8.To tremble; to vibrate; to quiver; to shake, as from cold or fear. Prometheus is laid On icy Caucasus to shiver. Swift. The man that shivered on the brink of sin, Thus steeled and hardened, ventures boldly in. Creech.
  8. 9.To cause to shake or tremble, as a sail, by steering close to the wind.
  9. 10.The act of shivering or trembling.

Sources