Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Abnormal vibration or wobbling, as of the wheels of an automobile.
- n. A dance popular in the 1920s, characterized by rapid shaking of the body.
- n. A chemise.
- v. To vibrate or wobble abnormally.
- v. To shake the body in or as if in dancing the shimmy.
Wiktionary
- n. An abnormal vibration, especially in the wheels of a vehicle.
- n. archaic A dance that was popular in the 1920s.
- n. rare A sleeveless chemise.
- v. To climb something (e.g. a pole) gradually (e.g. using alternately one's arms then one's legs.)
- v. intransitive To vibrate abnormally, as a broken wheel.
- v. intransitive, rare To shake the body as if dancing the shimmy.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. colloq. A chemise.
WordNet 3.0
- v. tremble or shake
- n. a woman's sleeveless undergarment
- v. dance a shimmy
- n. lively dancing (usually to ragtime music) with much shaking of the shoulders and hips
- n. an abnormal wobble in a motor vehicle (especially in the front wheels)
Etymologies
- Perhaps from shimmy, alteration of chemise. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“November 4, 2008 at 1:08 pm just gotta give a shimmy and it acts like chaff on radar *shimmy* see, I can disappear in the cloud.”
DEPRESSED ECONOMY - Lolcats 'n' Funny Pictures of Cats - I Can Has Cheezburger?
“* shimmy shimmy* anbudan_BALA I think I saw the news of Michael Jackson's demise late!”
Gaea Times (by Simple Thoughts) Breaking News and incisive views 24/7
“Some emo yet functional play from Chile, a direct contrast to the cheap & cheerful two-chord shimmy from the Honduran side.”
Pop World Cup 2010: Group H – Chile 1 Honduras 3 | FreakyTrigger
“How the proton gets its spin out of the quark-gluon shimmy is still a big mystery, so theorists have been experimenting with difference ways to combine PDFs and form factors, to include interference terms, and understand all components of nulceon spin.”
Generalized PDFs Imply a Gravitomagnetic Moment!?!?!? « Imaginary Potential
“At the cash register, Roy cracked a package of pennies like an egg and let the coins shimmy into the bowl of the money drawer.”
“This technology senses for irregularity in wheel balance and the related steering wheel vibration - or "shimmy" - it can cause.”
“Each house is fitted with a "shimmy" - a touch-screen computer that McCloud calls a cross between "an iPad and a parish magazine".”
“They expect to have a cure through a shimmy, which is part of the repair that we will do on the accelerator pedal," he said.”
“Shalhoub and Bartha at one point engage in a conversation reminiscent of an Abbott and Costello routine that features the proper pacing and deserving "shimmy" back and forth with each turn.”
The Huffington Post: Danny Groner: Lend Me a Tenor Is a Comedic Throwback
“The custard should "shimmy" a bit when you shake the pan; it will firm up more as it cools.”
The Huffington Post: Thanksgiving Recipes: Stuffing, Turkey, Sides & Desserts From Celebrity Chefs
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘shimmy’.
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MUSIC - dance styles
A list generated by Phrontistery
http://phrontistery.info/dance.html
which I wanted to have along with my own lists on Wordnikallemande, beguine, bergamask, bolero, bossa-nova, boston, bourrée, bransle, buck-and-wing, cabriole, cakewalk, canary and 93 more...
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henryar's list
marmoleum, menagerie, cyan, ochre, pilfer, discombobulate, loquacious, iridescent, amethyst, derelict, botulism, equilibrium and 240 more...
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Redundancing
The Moves. Do~do~ditty!
tango, bolero, cha cha, foxtrot, foxtantino, hip hop, hustle, jive, merengue, two step, paso doble, quickstep and 219 more...
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phrontistery-s
from phrontistery.info
sabaton, sabbatarian, sabbulonarium, sabelline, sabin, sable, sabliere, sabot, sabretache, sabulous, saburration, saccade and 1593 more...
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Words the sound like their meaning
love, hate, butterfly, whisper, shout, boil, simmer, glide, kiss, wisp, hum, hammer and 30 more...
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Jazz Era
Swingin' and boppin' slang-a-lang.
mooche, moocher, kick the gong around, applesauce, the berries, hooch, juice joint, the john, rummy, screaming meemies, daddy, cokey and 66 more...
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imm
immunogen, immobile, immiscible, shimmy, slimming, glimmer, immigrate, immutability, swimmingly, brimming, primming, skimming and 25 more...
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Baby, Work Out!
Names of popular or once dances.
hully gully, slauson, twist, jitterbug, stroll, pony, mashed potato, swim, jerk, watusi, boogaloo, worm and 54 more...
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Just 'cause I like 'em, S
scrunch, solace, sabotage, saccade, sacerdotal, sacrilegious, sacristy, snappy, skew, steadfast, scowl, scorch and 781 more...
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Airborn
Words and phrases from Kenneth Oppel's book, Airborn.
running lights, starboard, bow, gondola, bullhorn, rudder man, gas cell, keel, catwalk, stern, cargo bay, machinist and 152 more...
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Twitchy
The (not always so) smoovements; scattered, oscillating, jerky, and unpredictable.
palpitation, scravel, jactitate, pounce, wobble, vibrate, undulate, didder, effleurage, flail, ague, swerve and 169 more...
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One Left Footer's Manifesto
I was tragically born with an extra left foot. If I weren't so debilitated, this would be my to-do list.
cha cha, tango, waltz, fox trot, limbo, square dance, line dance, mosh, breakdance, pop and lock, robot, salsa and 98 more...
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Tuesday words
just the next words that come along
nasality, transignification, lapsarian, disciple, slanguage, atwitter, avast, ahoy, asleep, awake, hymnody, glissade and 573 more...
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booknerd's Words
frenetic, elite, kiss, grip, flesh, sugar, ciao, occult, copious, antiquated, drawl, lush and 101 more...
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favorite words
ennui, bonhomie, eschew, liaison, serendipity, lovely, dusk, kitten, epitome, sexy, beloved, darling and 396 more...
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Words of the Day
glabella, chirotony, nook-shotten, crapehanger, filemot, swirlie, egosurf, lexiphanicism, Ruritanian, stichometry, chrononaut, faldstool and 2050 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for shimmy.
bilby "Next morning the São Francisco did indeed embark on her last journey up the river she was named for, waddling and shimmying as her gaily painted paddles slapped the water."
- 'The São Francisco', Germaine Greer in The Madwoman's Underclothes. Sep 1, 2008