Twitch vs Shiver - What's the difference?
twitch | shiver |
A brief, small (sometimes involuntary) movement out of place and then back again; a spasm.
(informal) Action of spotting or seeking out a bird, especially a rare one.
(farriery) A stick with a hole in one end through which passes a loop, which can be drawn tightly over the upper lip or an ear of a horse and twisted to keep the animal quiet during minor surgery.
To perform a twitch; spasm.
* (rfdate) — [http://www.mindspring.com/~randyhoward/new_page_6.htm]
* 1922 , (Margery Williams), (The Velveteen Rabbit)
*:Their feet padded softly on the ground, and they crept quite close to him, twitching their noses...
To jerk sharply and briefly.
* Alexander Pope
To spot or seek out a bird, especially a rare one.
* 1995 , Quarterly Review of Biology vol. 70 p. 348:
* 2003 , Mark Cocker, Birders: Tales of a Tribe [http://books.google.com/books?id=tv-Noj1Fvc0C], ISBN 0802139965, page 52:
* 2005 , Sean Dooley, The Big Twitch: One Man, One Continent, a Race Against Time [http://books.google.com/books?id=fWLmpqL4EMsC], ISBN 1741145287, page 119:
couch grass, Elymus repens ; a species of grass, often considered as a weed.
A fragment or splinter, especially of glass or stone.
(obsolete, UK, dialect) A thin slice; a shive.
* Fuller
(geology) A variety of blue slate.
(nautical) A sheave or small wheel in a pulley.
A small wedge, as for fastening the bolt of a window shutter.
(obsolete, UK, dialect) A spindle.
To break into splinters or fragments.
* 1851 ,
* 1904 , (Arthur Conan Doyle), The Adventure of the Six Napoleons , Norton (2005), page 1034:
* 2010 , (Christopher Hitchens), Hitch-22 , Atlantic 2011, p. 183:
To tremble or shake, especially when cold or frightened.
* Creech
* 1847 , , (Jane Eyre), Chapter XVIII
* 1922 , (Margery Williams), (The Velveteen Rabbit)
* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-07, author=David Simpson
, volume=188, issue=26, page=36, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly)
, title= (nautical) To cause to shake or tremble, as a sail, by steering close to the wind.
The act or result of shivering.
:
*
*:But they had already discovered that he could be bullied, and they had it their own way; and presently Selwyn lay prone upon the nursery floor, impersonating a ladrone while pleasant shivers chased themselves over Drina, whom he was stalking.
(lb) A bodily response to early hypothermia.(w)
As nouns the difference between twitch and shiver
is that twitch is a brief, small (sometimes involuntary) movement out of place and then back again; a spasm while shiver is a fragment or splinter, especially of glass or stone.As verbs the difference between twitch and shiver
is that twitch is to perform a twitch; spasm while shiver is to break into splinters or fragments.twitch
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) twicchen, from (etyl) twiccian, from (etyl) ).Noun
(es)- I saw a little twitch in the man's face, and knew he was lying.
Derived terms
* nervous twitchVerb
- "Why is it that you twitch whenever I say Faith?"
- to twitch somebody's sleeve for attention
- Thrice they twitched the diamond in her ear.
- "The Birdwatchers Handbook ... will be a clear asset to those who 'twitch' in Europe."
- "But the key revelation from twitching that wonderful Iceland Gull on 10 March 1974 wasn't its eroticism. It was the sheer innocence of it."
- "I hadn't seen John since I went to Adelaide to (unsuccessfully) twitch the '87 Northern Shoveler, when I was a skinny, eighteen- year-old kid. "
Usage notes
When used of birdwatchers by ignorant outsiders, this term frequently carries a negative connotation.Derived terms
* atwitchEtymology 2
alternate of quitchNoun
(-)shiver
English
Etymology 1
From a Germanic word, probably present in Old English though unattested, cognate with Old High German scivaro'' (German ''Schiefer ‘slate’).Noun
(en noun)- a shiver of their own loaf
Verb
(en verb)- But if, in the face of all this, you still declare that whaling has no aesthetically noble associations connected with it, then am I ready to shiver fifty lances with you there, and unhorse you with a split helmet every time.
- he found a plaster bust of Napoleon, which stood with several other works of art upon the counter, lying shivered into fragments.
- A whole series of fault lines radiated away from this Lisbon earthquake, all of them shivering the structures of traditional order.
Derived terms
* shiver my timbersEtymology 2
Origin uncertain, perhaps an alteration of chavel.Verb
(en verb)- The man that shivered on the brink of sin, / Thus steeled and hardened, ventures boldly in.
- Mr. Mason, shivering as some one chanced to open the door, asked for more coal to be put on the fire, which had burnt out its flame, though its mass of cinder still shone hot and red. The footman who brought the coal, in going out, stopped near Mr. Eshton's chair, and said something to him in a low voice, of which I heard only the words, "old woman,"—"quite troublesome."
- He was shivering a little, for he had always been used to sleeping in a proper bed, and by this time his coat had worn so thin and threadbare from hugging that it was no longer any protection to him.
Fantasy of navigation, passage=Like most human activities, ballooning has sponsored heroes and hucksters and a good deal in between. For every dedicated scientist patiently recording atmospheric pressure and wind speed while shivering at high altitudes, there is a carnival barker with a bevy of pretty girls willing to dangle from a basket or parachute down to earth.}}