Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To shake with a slight, rapid, tremulous movement. See Synonyms at shake.
- n. The act or motion of quivering.
- n. A portable case for holding arrows.
- n. A case full of arrows.
- n. A collection or store; arsenal: a quiver of ready responses.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Nimble; active; spry.
- To quake; tremble; shake tremulously; shudder; shiver.
- To flutter or be agitated with a tremulous motion.
- Synonyms Quake, etc. See shiver.
- n. The act or state of quivering; a tremulous motion; a tremor; a flutter; a shudder; a shiver.
- n. A case for holding arrows or crossbow-bolts. Quivers were formerly nearly as long as the arrows, so that only the feathers projected, these being covered by a piece of leather or cloth when not likely to be required. Medieval archers in war generally used the quiver on the march only, and in battle carried their arrows secured by a strap, usually with the addition of a small socket in which the points only were covered.
Wiktionary
- n. weaponry A container for arrows, crossbow bolts or darts, such as those fired from a bow, crossbow or blowgun.
- n. figuratively A ready storage location for figurative tools or weapons.
- n. obsolete The collective noun for cobras.
- n. Shaking or moving with a slight trembling motion.
- n. mathematics A multidigraph.
- adj. archaic Nimble, active.
- v. intransitive To shake or move with slight and tremulous motion; to tremble; to quake; to shudder; to shiver.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. obsolete Nimble; active.
- v. To shake or move with slight and tremulous motion; to tremble; to quake; to shudder; to shiver.
- n. The act or state of quivering; a tremor.
- n. A case or sheath for arrows to be carried on the person.
WordNet 3.0
- n. an almost pleasurable sensation of fright
- n. case for holding arrows
- n. the act of vibrating
- v. shake with fast, tremulous movements
- n. a shaky motion
- v. move with or as if with a regular alternating motion
- v. move back and forth very rapidly
Etymologies
- From Middle English quiveren, probably from the adjective. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English quiveren, perhaps from quiver, nimble (from Old English cwifer-).Middle English, from Anglo-Norman quiveir, variant of Old French cuivre, from Old Low Franconian cocar, probably from Medieval Latin cucurum, probably from Hunnish; akin to Mongolian kökür. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“A quiver is where you keep arrows until you shoot them.”
“The last, thin quiver in the Wingnut quill, of course, is blaming the media.”
“The fourth, and perhaps the most important arrow in OSPE's quiver is direct intervention.”
“Polished," that is, free from all rust, implies His unsullied purity. in ... quiver ... hid me -- Like a sword in its scabbard, or a shaft in the quiver, Messiah, before His appearing, was hid with God, ready to be drawn forth at the moment God saw fit [Hengstenberg]; also always protected by God, as the arrow by the quiver (Isa 51: 16).”
“Their quiver is all-devouring, as the grave opened to receive the dead: as many as are the arrows, so many are the deaths.”
“The 'my Wilfrid' made the owner of the name quiver with satisfaction.”
“God's quiver is full of arrows; he is never at a loss for ways and means to punish a wicked people.”
Commentary on the Whole Bible Volume VI (Acts to Revelation)
“Happy the man, happy the nation, whose quiver is full of these arrows!”
“They are well armed: Their quiver is as an open sepulchre; their arrows shall fly so thick, hit so sure, and wound so deep, that they shall be reckoned to breathe nothing but death and slaughter: they are able-bodied, all effective, mighty men, v. 16.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘quiver’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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Q words
Ever get stuck with the random bunch of letters and a q and not know any words? Well, maybe this will help.
quire, quais, quai, queer, quoit, quitrent, quipster, question, quest, questing, quests, quit and 208 more...
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Iaan
dirigisme, dystopia, cacotopia, ex ante, veritable, indefatigable, curmudgeon, desultory, antediluvian, transmogrify, pendent, elongate and 272 more...
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Test Prep or Just for fun
Building a list for standardized test prep or just for learning some new words! Please add any words that you feel are important for the SAT/GRE/GMAT etc...
throng, morass, parley, facile, kismet, strife, jetsam, carrion, annex, harbinger, vestige, surreptitious and 575 more...
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Artistic words
Good for poetry, or just artistic on their own.
fluxus, gallant, kinetic, lurk, disengage, mist, agleam, voyeur, devoid, crimson, ebony, azure and 94 more...
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Words from Blood Meridian
visage, affray, scullery, miasma, mirth, purlieu, tacit, benighted, wickiup, corral, amble, accoutre and 210 more...
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RELI - Genesis
Protagonists and relevant words in the Book of Creation (Source: King James Bible)
Laban, circumcise, beget, Esau, Rebekah, speckle, Sodom, Pharaoh, Canaanite, Canaan, Jacob, Lot and 1286 more...
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Yazhinni Spelling bee
tongue, stallion, scruple, salinity, schedule, rouge, populist, Permian, perspire, pasteurize, multitude, mournful and 227 more...
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Genes
Interesting gene names. Some of these may have changed recently (to something less offensive/funny).
http://www.genenames.org/
tinman, agnostic, dreadlocks, Van Gogh, fruitless, lava lamp, ariadne, cheap date, ken and barbie, I'm not dead yet, I'm not dead yet 2, manic fringe and 1192 more... -
ghost
This is Ghost List 2 ( the kind that go 'boo!' ) :P
( open list )
more:
http://www.wordnik.com/lists/macabrephantom, spectral, specter, spectre, spooky, poltergeist, haunt, spirit, banshee, cryptic, shadow, phantasm and 311 more...
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SCIE - graph theory
antiparallel, convex polyhedron, nonadjacent, acyclic, isomorphic, vertex, graph, planar, homomorphism, factorization, adjacency, disjoint and 423 more...
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Collections
Have I made this list before? Has someone else collected these words together? I can't remember, so I'm just going to start storing some things here.
collection, omnium-gatherum, sylloge, antiphonary, anthology, bestiary, cartulary, dossier, sampler, assortment, variety, hodgepodge and 65 more...
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Poetry
lucid, silhouette, ethereal, illumination, serenity, requiem, adieu, celestial, esoteric, myriad, ebony, kaleidoscope and 16 more...
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favored
visceral, twinkle, whalebone, incandescent, carousel, entangle, brevity, desolate, twirl, deltoid, graceless, tryst and 94 more...
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ChortleGiggleSnort
Significant Words- Guiding you on your path to Snazzibility
flimsy, feeble, ranting, ramble, narky, snazzy, yoghurt, bulbous, pustule, globulous, geranium, megalomaniac and 521 more...
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The Legend of Zelda
dungeon, ocarina, rupee, triforce, ganon, link, ganondorf, impa, hyrule, majora, mask, temple and 194 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for quiver.

Arthurpod "...'Mud?' His leper's caution quivered. 'I need soap, not more dirt.'..."
Lord Foul's Bane Jul 29, 2012
sillygoose A case for holding or carrying arrows, or the arrows carried in said case. May also refer to a collection of surfboards or skateboards.
Finally, it is a term that a fundamentalist Christian sect uses to describe their movement to have as many babies as possible -- Full Quiver Theology, based on the reading of Psalm 127: 3-5: "Children are a heritage of the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward. As arrows in a soldier's hand, so are the sons of the young. Blessed is the man who has filled his quiver with them." Feb 22, 2008
skipvia A group of cobras
Nov 15, 2007
oroboros ...and don't forget that ever-racy color: vermillion. ;oP Sep 14, 2007
suunflowerss my favorite word from my trashy novel era..... "his manhood quivered at the sight of her virginal breast" Sep 14, 2007
brtom Then Crown'd again thir gold'n Harps they took,
Harps ever tun'd, that glittering by thir side
Like Quivers hung ...
Milton, Paradise Lost III Dec 19, 2006