Listen to the author reading this blog post:
by Liz Walter
In my last post, I wrote about verbs that describe circular movements. I’m staying with the theme of movement today and looking at shaking movements and movements from side to side.
If something judders, it shakes with violent, often uneven movements. We often use this verb to describe vehicles or machines that aren’t working smoothly. If something vibrates, it shakes with small, continuous movements. It is often used when the feeling it produces is more important than what is seen or heard:
We were miles from anywhere when the car juddered and came to a sudden halt.
I could feel my phone vibrating in my pocket.
Quiver is used for a small movement. It is often used for part of a person’s body, especially when they are experiencing a strong emotion such as fear or sadness. The verb twitch is also used mainly for parts of the body, and describes a small, sudden and uncontrollable movement:
Her lips were quivering and I could see she was trying not to cry.
A small vein near his eye began to twitch.
The verbs jerk and jolt also describe short, sudden, and often uncontrolled movements, but they are more forceful:
At the mention of her name, his head jerked up.
Our van jolted over the rough ground.
Moving on to movements from side to side, someone or something that rocks moves backwards and forwards or from side to side, often in a regular, gentle motion, and if we rock someone or something, we move them in this way. If something wiggles or if you wiggle it, it moves up and down or from side to side with small, fast movements:
He rocked the baby gently in his arms.
Wiggle the wire around a bit until it fits into the hole.
The verb sway describes a slow, gentle movement, while flap describes a less controlled movement, and often one that produces a small noise. It also describes the up and down movement of a bird’s wings:
The trees were swaying in the wind.
As the storm grew stronger, the sides of the tent started to flap alarmingly.
Wobble describes movements from side to side when someone or something is struggling to balance. Teeter is even stronger, implying that the person or thing could fall at any moment:
I put a piece of wood under the table leg to stop it wobbling.
The ball hit the vase, which teetered on the edge of its shelf.
I hope you find these words useful. Learning precise and more interesting words for basic concepts like movement is a great way to take your English to a more advanced level.
“judder” seems to be mostly UK English.
“shudder” seems to be the US equivalent.
A thousand pages and thousands of words…and I owe it all to Liz and Kate, who should be given a medal for their contributions to the spread of English! This is ” a great way to take your English to a more advanced level”. I could not agree more. Thank you very much and best wishes for another year’s blogging.
Hey please good,am Precious from Ghana nice to meet you how is your family
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You won’t believe how many google web pages I opened to look up definitions while reading this post,I must say I’m impressed by your choice of words and knowledge,any tips for a bilingual person trying to advance their vocabulary and become a better speaker(Publicly)
Excellent write-up! Keep it up!!
Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your articles!