Shudder
noun, verb ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 A shivering tremor, often from fear or horror.
"Seeing the spider under his pillow gave John a shudder."
- 2 an involuntary vibration (as if from illness or fear) wordnet
- 3 A moment of almost pleasurable fear; a frisson.
"They name thee before me, / A knell to mine ear; / A shudder comes o'er me— / Why wert thou so dear?"
- 4 an almost pleasurable sensation of fright wordnet
- 1 To shake nervously, often from fear or horror. intransitive
"On seeing the spider under his pillow, John shuddered."
- 2 shake, as from cold wordnet
- 3 To vibrate jerkily. intransitive
- 4 tremble convulsively, as from fear or excitement wordnet
Example
More examples"The sound of an awful scream made him shudder."
Etymology
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.
Related phrases
More for "shudder"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.