different between shudder vs cower

English

Etymology

From Middle English *shudderen, *schuderen (suggested by Middle English shuddering, schudering (“shaking, quivering, shuddering”)), 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 *skudjan?, from Proto-Indo-European *skewd?-. From Low German are also borrowed German schaudern (“to shudder”), Danish skudre.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /???d?/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /???d?/
• Homophone: shutter (accents with flapping)
• Rhymes: -?d?(?)
• Hyphenation: shud?der

Noun

shudder (plural shudders)

1. A shivering tremor, often from fear or horror.
2. A moment of almost pleasurable fear; a frisson.

Synonyms

• (shivering tremor): jiggle, quake, rumble, quiver
• (frisson): shiver (cold), quiver, tingle, thrill

Translations

Verb

shudder (third-person singular simple present shudders, present participle shuddering, simple past and past participle shuddered)

1. (intransitive) To shake nervously, often from fear or horror.
2. (intransitive) To vibrate jerkily.

Synonyms

• (shake nervously): palpitate, shiver, shake, quake
• (vibrate jerkily): flutter, jiggle, shake, wiggle

Translations

See also

• judder

References

English

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /?ka??/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?ka??/
• Rhymes: -a?.?(?)

Etymology 1

From Middle English cowre, couren, curen, from Middle Low German kûren (“to lie in wait; linger”) or from North Germanic (Icelandic kúra (“to doze”)). Cognate with German kauern (“to squat”), Dutch koeren (“to keep watch (in a cowered position)”), Serbo-Croatian kutriti (“to lie in a bent position”). Unrelated to coward, which is of Latin origin.

Verb

cower (third-person singular simple present cowers, present participle cowering, simple past and past participle cowered)

1. (intransitive) To crouch or cringe, or to avoid or shy away from something, in fear.

   He'd be useless in war. He'd just cower in his bunker until the enemy came in and shot him, or until the war was over.

   • 1700, John Dryden, "The Cock and the Fox", in Fables, Ancient and Modern, published March 1700:

     Our dame sits cowering o'er a kitchen fire.

2. (intransitive, archaic) To crouch in general.
   • 1764, Oliver Goldsmith, The Traveller:

     Some sterner virtues o’er the mountain’s breast
     May sit, like falcons, cowering on the nest

   • 1801, Robert Southey, Thalaba the Destroyer:

     The mother bird had mov’d not,
     But cowering o’er her nestlings,
     Sate confident and fearless,
     And watch’d the wonted guest.

3. (transitive) To cause to cower; to frighten into submission.

Translations

See also

• coward
• cowardice

Etymology 2

Verb

cower (third-person singular simple present cowers, present participle cowering, simple past and past participle cowered)

1. (obsolete, transitive) To cherish with care.

Anagrams

• Crowe