qua·ver

(kwā′vər)

v. qua·vered, qua·ver·ing, qua·vers

v.intr.

1. To quiver, as from weakness; tremble.

2. To speak in a quivering voice; utter a quivering sound.

3. Music To produce a trill on an instrument or with the voice.

v.tr.

To utter or sing in a trilling voice.

1. A quivering sound.

2. Music

a. A trill.

b. An eighth note.

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

qua′ver·ing·ly adv.

qua′ver·y adj.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Adj.

quavering - (of the voice) quivering as from weakness or fear; "the old lady's quavering voice"; "spoke timidly in a tremulous voice"

tremulous

unsteady - subject to change or variation; "her unsteady walk"; "his hand was unsteady as he poured the wine"; "an unsteady voice"

Translations

tremolante

quavering

[ˈkweɪvərɪŋ] ADJ → trémulo, tembloroso

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

quavering

, quavery

adj voice → bebend, zitternd; notes → tremolierend

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

quavering

[ˈkweɪv/ərɪŋ] adj (voice) → tremulo/a, tremolante

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

But it is a wonder that we did not carry away the cables of both our anchors, for, as may be imagined, I did not stand upon the order to "Let go!" that came to me in a quavering, quite unknown voice from his trembling lips.

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Up the stone gully of Leith Walk, when they came to cross it, the breeze made a rush and set the flames of the street-lamps quavering; and when at last they had mounted to the Royal Terrace, where Captain Mackenzie lived, a great salt freshness came in their faces from the sea.

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He was voicing an utter woe, his cry bursting upward in great heart-breaking rushes, dying down into quavering misery, and bursting upward again with a rush upon rush of grief.

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Without heeding Richard, he continued to sing a kind of wild, melancholy air, that rose, at times, in sudden and quite elevated notes, and then fell again into the low, quavering sounds that seemed to compose the character of his music.

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"What is the matter?" asked the passenger, then, with mildly quavering speech.

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As he marched he sang a bit of doggerel in a high and quavering voice:

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"You would not kill me?" Surprise and incredulity were in the tones of the quavering old voice.

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Rokoff urged them to greater speed, and from the quavering note in his voice Jane Clayton knew that he was weak from terror.

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In a telephone conversation on Friday, Mrs Kalu, whose voice was quavering, lamented her husband's health status saying: 'Although the surgery was successful, my husband will still have to be monitored closely by a medical team for at least, four months in order to prevent complications.

Kalu undergoes surgery in Germany, not in coma -Wife

Britain's most common owl species is the tawny, whose quavering hoot is a familiar night-time sound in parks and woods.

Britain's got talon with 10 owl stamps