quaver

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“
A step is also taken for each quaver, but twice as quickly; for the dotted crochet, a step and a slight spring before the last quaver--all this while the arms are beating a steady four.

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Definitions (22)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (7)

  1. intransitive verb To quiver, as from weakness; tremble.
  2. intransitive verb To speak in a quivering voice; utter a quivering sound.
  3. intransitive verb Music To produce a trill on an instrument or with the voice.
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Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (8)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (3)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (4)

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Examples (50)

  • To my amazement, the quaver is gone from my voice, the quiver gone from my knees. —  Dan Simmons - Hockenberry 1 - Ilium
  • It had a slight excited quaver, and it was rapid, too rapid for broadcast. —  In a Strange City
  • His gaze may be steady as a rock, but when he talks, there's a hint of a quaver -- almost a shadow memory of tears. —  RNews - TOP STORIES
  • In those first few notes was a weak quaver, a huskiness that ought not to have been there. —  The House of Toys
  • But the drudgery of teaching the young mind to distinguish between crotchet and quaver, and mark time, mark time, wore Von Barwig out Good God," he would think, "will it ever come that time shall cease to be, and I shall cease to mark it?" —  The Music Master Novelized from the Play
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This word has been looked up 145 times.

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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

undercurrent ·  yelp ·  titter ·  cackle ·  tremulousness ·  droop ·  tingle ·  waver ·  tremor ·  overtone ·  intonation ·  whimper

Used in the same contextWord Family

quaver:   quavered ·  quavering
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English quaveren, probably frequentative of cwavien, quaven, to tremble.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. from Middle English quaveren, freq. of quave; cf. Low German quabbeln = German quabbeln, quappeln, quiver, tremble, freq. of the form represented by English quab. Cf. quiver.
  2. from quaver, v.
 

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/ˈkweɪvər/
by American Heritage

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