shiver
part of speech
verb (shiver, shivers, shivered, shivering); noun (a shiver, shivers)
meaning for a pupil
1) To shiver means to shake a little, without wanting to, because you are cold, afraid or excited. tree →
2) A shiver is one such small shake. tree →
3) «It sent shivers down my spine» means it made me feel scared or thrilled. tree →
sense in the lessons
In science (the body), shivering is a reflex: tiny fast muscle movements make heat to warm you up; strong shivering is a warning sign of getting too cold (hypothermia), so get dry, warm and tell an adult. In stories, shivering shows cold or fear. Phrases: shiver with cold, shiver with fear, shivers down my spine, give someone the shivers.
examples
- I shivered at the bus stop without my coat. tree →
- The wet puppy was shivering, so we wrapped it in a towel. tree →
- The ghost story sent shivers down my spine. tree →
- Shivering helps your body make heat. tree →
- She shivered with excitement before the show. tree →
- If you are shivering after swimming, dry off and put on warm clothes. tree →
- A shiver ran through me when the door creaked. tree →
- Oh! how she shivered with the cold. tree →
note
Regular verb: shivered, shivering (one r). Similar words: tremble (often from fear or weakness), shudder (one big shake, often from disgust). Shivering is normal in cold, but if someone stops shivering while still very cold and seems confused, that is an emergency.
In the corpora
- Bumblebees warm up by shivering their flight muscles, so they can fly on cold spring mornings when honeybees cannot.
- Bumblebees can fly on cold days because they shiver their flight muscles to warm up, and their furry coats keep the heat in.
- Shivering is your muscles making heat to warm you up.
- Flu comes on suddenly with high fever, aching muscles, headache, shivers and great tiredness.
- Shivering hard, pale skin, slurred speech and being very sleepy can be signs a person is getting dangerously cold.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «shiver» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.