quiver

• (US, Canada) enPR: kwĭˈvər, IPA^(key): /ˈkwɪvəɹ/

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• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈkwɪvə/
• Rhymes: -ɪvə(ɹ)

From Middle English quiver, from Anglo-Norman quivre, from Old Dutch cocare (compare Dutch koker), possibly ultimately from Proto-Mongolic *kökexür (“leather vessel for liquids”); see there for more. Replaced early modern English cocker.

quiver (plural quivers)

1. (weaponry) A container for arrows, crossbow bolts or darts, such as those fired from a bow, crossbow or blowgun.
   • 1598, William Shakespeare, Much Ado about Nothing, Act I, Scene I, line 271:

     Don Pedro: Nay, if Cupid have not spent all his quiver in Venice, thou wilt quake for this shortly.

   • 1786, Francis Grose, A Treatise on Ancient Armour and Weapons, page 39:

     Arrows were carried in quiver, called also an arrow case, which served for the magazine, arrows for immediate use were worn in the girdle.

2. (figuratively) A ready storage location for figurative tools or weapons.

   He's got lots of sales pitches in his quiver.

3. (obsolete) The collective noun for cobras.
4. (mathematics) A multidigraph.

• quiverful

From Middle English quiver, cwiver, from Old English *cwifer.

quiver (comparative more quiver, superlative most quiver)

1. (archaic) Nimble, active.
   • 1598, William Shakespeare, Henry V, Part II, Act III, Scene II, line 281:

     […] there was a little quiver fellow, and 'a would manage you his piece thus; and 'a would about and about, and come you in and come you in.

From Middle English quiveren, probably from the adjective.

quiver (third-person singular simple present quivers, present participle quivering, simple past and past participle quivered)

1. (intransitive) To shake or move with slight and tremulous motion; to tremble; to quake; to shudder; to shiver.
   • 1593, William Shakespeare, Titus Andronicus, Act II, Scene III, line 12:

     The birds chaunt melody on every bush, / The snake lies rolled in the cheerful sun, / The green leaves quiver with the cooling wind / And make a checker'd shadow on the ground.

   • Addison

     And left the limbs still quivering on the ground.

• aquiver
• quivering
• quiversome

From Anglo-Norman quivre, from Old Dutch cocare; perhaps ultimately from Proto-Mongolic *kökexür. Doublet of coker.

• quyver, qwyver, qwywere, qwyvere, whyver

• IPA^(key): /ˈkwivər/

quiver (plural quivers)

1. A quiver (a receptacle for arrows)
2. (rare, vulgar) A vulva.

• English: quiver

• “quiver (n.)” in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-05-04.

From Old English *cwifer.

• quyver, quyvere, cwiver

• IPA^(key): /ˈkwivər/

quiver

1. fast, speedy, rapid
2. energetic, vigourous, vibrant

• English: quiver

• “quiver (adj.)” in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-05-04.