Waver vs Shiver - What's the difference?
waver | shiver |
To sway back and forth; to totter or reel.
* Ld. Berners
* Sir Walter Scott
To flicker, glimmer, quiver, as a weak light.
To fluctuate or vary, as commodity prices or a poorly sustained musical pitch.
To shake or tremble, as the hands or voice.
To falter; become unsteady; begin to fail or give way.
* 1903 , Bill Arp, From the Uncivil War to Date
* 2014 , Jacob Steinberg, "
To be indecisive between choices; to feel or show doubt or indecision; to vacillate.
An act of wavering, vacillating, etc.
Someone who waves, enjoys waving, etc.
Someone who specializes in waving (hair treatment).
A tool that accomplishes hair waving.
(UK, dialect, dated) A sapling left standing in a fallen wood.
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 verbs the difference between waver and shiver
is that waver is to sway back and forth; to totter or reel while shiver is to break into splinters or fragments or shiver can be to tremble or shake, especially when cold or frightened.As nouns the difference between waver and shiver
is that waver is an act of wavering, vacillating, etc while shiver is a fragment or splinter, especially of glass or stone or shiver can be the act or result of shivering.waver
English
Verb
(en verb)- Flowers wavered in the breeze.
- With banners and pennons wavering with the wind.
- Thou wouldst waver on one of these trees as a terror to all evil speakers against dignities.
- His voice wavered when the reporter brought up the controversial topic.
- ...and that when a man was in the wrong his courage wavered , and his nerves became unsteady, and so he couldn't fight to advantage and was easily overcome.
Wigan shock Manchester City in FA Cup again to reach semi-finals", The Guardian , 9 March 2014:
- Although they believe they can overhaul their 2-0 deficit, they cannot afford to be as lethargic as this at Camp Nou, and the time is surely approaching when Manuel Pellegrini's faith in Martín Demichelis wavers .
Noun
(en noun)- I felt encouraged by all the enthusiastic wavers in the crowd.
- The Fourth of July brings out all the flag wavers .
- Johnny is such a little waver ; everyone who passes by receives his preferred greeting.
- (Halliwell)
See also
* waivershiver
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.}}