QUIVERING Synonyms: 73 Similar and Opposite Words

quivering 1 of 3

adjective

as in trembling

marked by or given to small uncontrollable bodily movements our quivering dog tried to hide under the bed during the thunderstorm

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

quivering

2 of 3

noun

as in twitching

a series of slight movements by a body back and forth or from side to side the kids were fascinated by the quivering of the jellyfish and kept poking it to see it wiggle

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quivering

3 of 3

verb

present participle of quiver

as in shaking

to make a series of small irregular or violent movements aspen leaves quivering in the breeze

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recent Examples of quivering

Noun

The horror has come now like a storm— what if this night prefigured the night after death— what if all thereafter was an eternal quivering on the edge of an abyss, with everything base and vicious in oneself urging one forward and the baseness and viciousness of the world just ahead. — Literary Hub, 3 Mar. 2026 The old dog slowed to a stop, nose full of bird stink, feathery tail quivering. — Joel M. Vance, Outdoor Life, 29 Oct. 2025

Verb

But each of its eight-and-a-half minutes introduces a subtle mutation, rotating buzzing electronics and quivering guitars into the spotlight. — Arman Khan, Pitchfork, 4 Aug. 2026 Located on the street level of the Harbor Boulevard complex, the new shop gives dessert-loving denizens another place to pick up the quivering treat. — Brock Keeling, Oc Register, 26 May 2026 Johnston plays poor Bear as a quivering mess wracked with guilt that this monster — who used to be his friend — is the result of his own terrible decision-making. — Katie Walsh, Twin Cities, 23 May 2026 Maggie could see how the soles of her feet strained against the stirrups, her pale fists grinding into the platform, knuckles first and elbows quivering. — Literary Hub, 8 May 2026 In the 1970s, James Lovelock proposed that the biosphere was not just green scruff quivering on Earth's surface. — Big Think, 23 Apr. 2026 Few things shake the confidence of a person like crawling to the top bunk of a quivering bed frame, your feet wrapping uncomfortably along the frail metal rungs of the ladder. — Julia Harrison, Architectural Digest, 27 Jan. 2026 Danes is a four-time Golden Globe winner who brought her quivering lower lip to bear on the role of an author who thinks her next-door neighbor killed his wife. — Nate Jones, Vulture, 9 Jan. 2026 For Lusti, the highwire act has less to do with skiing over exposure that would turn the rest of us into quivering piles of jello and more to do with learning when her time outdoors stops being a refuge and starts being a hiding place. — Outside Online, 10 Dec. 2025

Recent Examples of Synonyms for quivering

Adjective

Standing 10 yards in front of us on a corner of Wilshire Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue was a shivering elderly woman who looked lost.

— Richard Greenberg, Los Angeles Times, 6 Feb. 2026
What she’s produced is a searching, pointedly disorienting text, studded with passages of extreme beauty and generous humor, that wears whimsy like a shivering veil over consuming discomfort, even terror.

— Paul McAdory, Vulture, 22 Sep. 2025

Definition of shivering

Noun

Betelgeuse and the Pleiades hung—one billowing, one trembling—out of sight somewhere past the window frame.

— Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 19 Aug. 2026
When the trembling decreased, the 27-year-old mother took the stairs seven stories down with her young child in her arms and evacuated the building.

— Nicole Acevedo, NBC news, 10 Aug. 2026

Definition of trembling

Verb

White slammed Garry for shaking hands and embracing Makhachev before the final round.

— Brian Mazique, Forbes.com, 16 Aug. 2026
Yohanna Embu, a resident of Sikka, a regency in East Nusa Tenggara, said a number of buildings were damaged by the strong shaking and panicked people ran to higher ground.

— Yacob Herin, Los Angeles Times, 15 Aug. 2026

Definition of shaking

Adjective

But with his shaky return from arthroscopic elbow surgery leading to three blown saves in four appearances, the crowd tempered its enthusiasm appropriately.

— Maddie Lee, Los Angeles Times, 15 Aug. 2026
And reactions tend to get built on shaky ground, which is where the real cost shows up.

— Dan Haiem, Forbes.com, 12 Aug. 2026

Definition of shaky

Verb

These seemingly innocuous incidents attain new significance as they’re revisited alongside a slow crescendo that suddenly turns to shuddering piano chords on the track’s bridge.

— Nick Ayres DeMasi, Pitchfork, 1 July 2026
Choose Baits with Vibration Lipless crankbaits earn their keep each spring, as their shuddering motion creates the bait-mimicking tremors to which bass respond.

— David A. Brown, Outdoor Life, 1 July 2026

Definition of shuddering

Noun

These tests give engineers the opportunity to see how vibrations in Dragonfly’s rotors may resonate across the lander’s main body, potentially interfering with other equipment.

— Jamie Carter, Forbes.com, 18 Aug. 2026
Physicists used Wilson’s calculations to justify the previously murky mechanics of quantum field theory, which treats each particle as a wave while washing out the less significant effects of the smallest vibrations.

— Charlie Wood, Quanta Magazine, 17 Aug. 2026

Definition of vibration

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“Quivering.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/quivering. Accessed 21 Aug. 2026.

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Synonyms of quivering

adjective

noun

verb

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