different between quaver vs writhe

English

Etymology

From Middle English quaveren, frequentative form of quaven, cwavien (“to tremble”), equivalent to quave +? -er. Cognate with Low German quabbeln (“to quiver”), German quabbeln, quappeln (“to quiver”). More at quave, quab, quiver.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?kwe?v?(?)/
• Rhymes: -e?v?(r)

Noun

quaver (plural quavers)

1. A trembling shake.
2. A trembling of the voice, as in speaking or singing.
3. (music) an eighth note, drawn as a crotchet (quarter note) with a tail.

Related terms

• semiquaver
• demisemiquaver
• hemidemisemiquaver

Translations

See also

• breve
• crotchet
• longa
• minim
• semibreve

Verb

quaver (third-person singular simple present quavers, present participle quavering, simple past and past participle quavered)

1. To shake in a trembling manner.
2. (intransitive) To use the voice in a trembling manner, as in speaking or singing.
3. (transitive) To utter quaveringly.

   • We shall hear her quavering them […] to some sprightly airs of the opera.

Translations

English

Etymology

From Middle English writhen, from Old English wr?þan, from Proto-West Germanic *wr?þan, from Proto-Germanic *wr?þan? (“to weave, twist, turn”) (compare Old High German r?dan (“to wind, turn”), Old Norse ríða (“to wind”)), from Proto-Indo-European *wreyt- (“to twist, writhe”). Compare Lithuanian ri?sti (“to unbend, wind, roll”).

Pronunciation

• enPR: r?th, IPA^(key): /?a?ð/
• Rhymes: -a?ð

Verb

writhe (third-person singular simple present writhes, present participle writhing, simple past writhed or (archaic) wrothe, past participle writhed or (archaic) writhen)

1. (transitive) To twist, to wring (something).
2. (transitive) To contort (a part of the body).
   • 1906, Alfred Noyes, The Highwayman:

     She twisted her hands behind her; but all the knots held good.

     She writhed her hands till her fingers were wet with sweat or blood.

     They stretched and strained in the darkness, and the hours crawled by like years,

     Till, now, on the stroke of midnight,

     Cold, on the stroke of midnight,

     The tip of one finger touched it! The trigger at least was hers!

3. (intransitive) To twist or contort the body; to be distorted.
4. (transitive) To extort.

Translations

Noun

writhe (plural writhes)

1. (rare) A contortion.
2. (knot theory) The number of negative crossings subtracted from the number of positive crossings in a knot

Anagrams

• Wither, whiter, wither, wither-

Middle English

Verb

writhe

1. Alternative form of writhen