Shudder Meaning
/ˈʃʌdəː/Definition, CEFR level B2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
verbTo shake nervously, often from fear or horror.
verbTo vibrate jerkily.
Sentence Examples
The sound of an awful scream made him shudder.
I shudder to think of it.
CEFR Practice Quiz
When the cold wind hit her skin, she couldn't help but ____ with a quick, involuntary shake.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
A cold breeze from the open window made her ____ as she realized she had forgotten to wear a jacket.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English schoderen, from Middle Dutch schudderen and/or Middle Low German schodderen, iterative forms of the verb at hand in Dutch schudden, Low German schüdden (both “to shake”), German schütten (“to pour”), from Proto-Germanic *skudjaną, from Proto-Indo-European *skewdʰ-. From Low German are also borrowed German schaudern (“to shudder”), Danish skudre.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"VVreath'd vp in fatall folds iuſt in his way, / The feare where of doth make him ſhake, & ſhudder, […]"
— 1594, [William Shakespeare], Venus and Adonis, 2nd edition, London: […] Richard Field, […], →OCLC, signature Fiij, verso, lines [879–880]:
"What makes me shudder so? / I shudder and I sigh to think / That even Cicero / And many-minded Homer were / Mad as the mist and snow."
— 1929, William Butler Yeats, Mad as the Mist and Snow:
"They name thee before me, / A knell to mine ear; / A shudder comes o'er me— / Why wert thou so dear?"
— c. 1816, Lord Byron, When we Two parted:
"… and was not that slight tremble, a shudder which went through her young body, when his kiss, glowing and scorching with his wild passion, had dared to touch her tiny ice-cold hand?"
— 1906 January, Baroness Orczy [i.e., Emma Orczy], chapter 22, in A Son of the People: A Romance of the Hungarian Plains, London: Greening & Co., →OCLC:
Explore More B2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
When the cold wind hit her skin, she couldn't help but ____ with a quick, involuntary shake.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
A cold breeze from the open window made her ____ as she realized she had forgotten to wear a jacket.