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Shimmy
Definitions
- 1 A dance move involving thrusting the shoulders back and forth alternately.
- 2 lively dancing (usually to ragtime music) with much shaking of the shoulders and hips wordnet
- 3 A dance that was popular in the 1920s.
"The tango, the Texas Tommy, Walking the Dog, the one step, the fox trot, the shimmy, and all their out-growths, had their origin in the palaces of lust on the Barbary Coast of San Francisco."
- 4 a woman's sleeveless undergarment wordnet
- 5 An abnormal vibration, especially in the wheels of a vehicle.
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- 6 an abnormal wobble in a motor vehicle (especially in the front wheels) wordnet
- 7 A sleeveless chemise. rare
- 1 To perform a shimmy (dance movement involving thrusting the shoulders back and forth alternately).
"She wondered would he think her awful, and try to get fresh if she shimmied. Fellows often did. But he was so cute. And a girl had to something about that, and if she didn't shimmy, she might do something worse."
- 2 dance a shimmy wordnet
- 3 To climb something (e.g. a pole) gradually (e.g. using alternately one's arms then one's legs).
"He shimmied up the flagpole."
- 4 tremble or shake wordnet
- 5 To vibrate abnormally, as a broken wheel. intransitive
"They came in among earth-moving machines, a total absence of trees, the usual hieratic geometry, and eventually, shimmying for the sand roads, down in a helix to a sculptured body of water named Lake Inverarity."
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- 6 To shake the body as if dancing the shimmy. intransitive, rare
- 7 To move across a narrow ledge, either by hanging from it or by strafing on it along the wall. intransitive
"Jump up to the ledge on your right and shimmy around the corner."
Etymology
A back-formation from chemise (mistaken for a plural).
A back-formation from chemise (mistaken for a plural).
See also for "shimmy"
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