shirt-front 
shirt-front (shert'fruiit), n. 1. That part of a 
shirt which is allowed to show more or less in 
front; the part which covers the breast, and 
is often composed of finer material or orna- 
mented in some way, as by ruffles or lace, or by 
being plaited, or simply starched stiffly. Or- 
namental buttons, or studs, or breastpins are 
often worn in connection with it. 
First came a smartly-dressed personage on horseback, 
with a conspicuous expansive shirtfruiLt ami figured satin 
stock. Oeori/e Eliot, Felix Holt, xi. 
2. A dicky. 
shirting (sher'ting), it. [< shirt + -in<j l .~] 1. 
Any fabric designed for making shirts. Specifi- 
cally (a) A tine holland or linen. 
Cand. Lookeyou, Gentlemen, your choice : Cambrickes? 
Cram. No sir, some shirtiny. 
Dekker and Middleton, Honest Whore, I. i. 10. 
(b) Stout cotton cloth such as is suitable for shirts : when 
used without qualification, the term signifies plain white 
bleached cotton. 
2. Shirts collectively. [Rare.] 
A troop of droll children, little hatless boys with their 
galligaskins much worn and scant shirting to hang out. 
George Eliot, Middlemarch, xlv. 
Calico shirting, cotton cloth of the quality requisite for 
making shirts. [Eng.] Fancy shirting, a cotton cloth 
woven in simple patterns of one or two colors, like ging- 
ham, or printed in colors in simple patterns. 
shirtless (shert'les), a. [< shirt + -less."] With- 
out a shirt; hence, poor; destitute. 
Linsey-woolsey brothers, 
Grave mummers ! sleeveless some, and shirtless others. 
Pope, Duuciad, iii. 116. 
shirt-sleeve (shert'slev), n. The sleeve of a 
shirt. 
Sir Isaac Newton at the age of fourscore would strip up 
his shirt-sleeve to shew his muscular brawny arm. 
Sir J. Hawkins, Johnson, p. 440, note. 
In one's shirt-sleeves, without one's coat. 
They arise and come out together in their dirty shirt- 
sleeves, pipe in mouth. W. M. Baker, New Timothy, p. 185. 
shirt-waist (shert'wast), n. A garment for 
women's and children's wear, resembling a 
shirt in fashion, but worn over the undercloth- 
ing, and extending no lower than the waist, 
where it is belted. 
slush-work (shish'werk), n. [< Hind. Pers. 
shisha, glass, + E. work.] Decoration pro- 
duced by means of small pieces of mirror in- 
laid in wooden frames, and used, like a mosaic, 
for walls and ceilings. Compare ardisli, in 
which a slightly different process is followed. 
shist, n. See schist. 
shitepoke (shlt'pok), n. The small green her- 
on of North America, Butorides virescens, also 
called^ofre, chalk-line, aTidfly-up-the-creek. The 
poke is 16 to 18 inches long, and 25 in alar extent. The 
plumage of the crest and upper parts is mainly glossy- 
green, but the lance- linear plumes which decorate the back 
in the breeding-season have a glaucous-bluish cast, and the 
wing-coverts have tawny edgings ; the neck is rich pur- 
plish-chestnut, with a variegated throat -line of dusky and 
Shitepoke (BtttoHdes virescens). 
white ; the under parts are brownish-ash, varied on the 
belly with white ; the bill is greenish-black, with much of 
the under inaudible yellow, like the lores and irides ; the 
legs are greenish-yellow. This pretty heron abounds in 
suitable places in most of the United States; it breeds 
throughout this range, sometimes in heronries with other 
birds of its kind, sometimes by itself. The nest is a rude 
platform of sticks on a tree or bush ; the eggs are three to 
six in number, of a pale-greenish color, elliptical, 1 j inches 
long by l^j broad. There are other pokes of this genus, as 
B. brunnescens of Cuba. 
shittah-tree (shit'a-tre), . [< Heb. shittah, pi. 
shittln, a kind of acacia (the medial letter is 
teth).~\ A tree generally supposed to be an 
acacia, either Acacia Arabica (taken as in- 
cluding A. vera) or A. Seyal. These are small 
pirtrk'tl ;iml thorny trees suited to dry deserts, yielding 
gum arable, and affording a hard wood that of one being, 
as supposed, the shittim wood of Scripture. See cut un- 
der Acadtt. 
5579 
I will plant in the wilderness the cedar, the shittah tree 
and the myrtle, and the oil tree. Isa. xli. 19. 
shittim-WOOd (shit'im-wud), n. [< shittim (F. 
neti>n),< Heb.sMttfm (see sltittah-tree), + wood 1 .} 
1. The wood of the shittah-tree, prized among 
the Hebrews, and, according to Exodus and 
Deuteronomy, furnishing the material of the 
ark of the covenant and various parts of the 
tabernacle. It is hard, tough, durable, and 
susceptible of a fine polish. 
And they shall make an ark of shittim wood. Ex. xxv. 10. 
2. A tree, Bwnelia lanuginosa, of the southern 
United States, yielding a wood used to some 
extent in cabinet-making, and a gum, called 
gum-elastic, of some domestic use. The small 
western tree Bhammus Purshiana is also so 
called. 
shittle 1 (shit'l), n. An obsolete or dialectal 
form of shuttle 1 . 
Shittle 2 t, a. An obsolete form of shuttle?. 
shittle-brainedt, shittlecockt, etc. Same as 
shuttle-brained, etc. 
Shiva, n. Same as Siva. 
shivaree (shiv'a-re), . A corruption of chari- 
vari. [Vulgar," southern U. S.] 
shivaree (shiv'a-re), v. t. [< shivaree, .] To 
salute with a mock serenade. [Southern U. S.] 
The boys are going to shivaree old Poquelin to-night. 
G. W. Cable, Old Creole Days, p. 202. 
shive (shiv), n. [< ME. schive, schife, prob. < 
AS. "scife, *scif (not recorded) = MD. *sehijve, 
D. schijf, a round plate, disk, quoit, counter (in 
games), etc., = MLG. schive, LG. schive = OHG. 
sciba, scipa, a round plate, ball, wheel, MHG. 
schibe, G. scheibe, a round plate, roll, disk, pane 
of glass, = Icel. skifa, a slice, = Sw. skifva = 
Dan. skive, a slice, disk, dial, sheave ; perhaps 
akin to Gr. ovcoiTrof, a potters' wheel, tsKlirwv, a 
staff, L. scipio(n-), a staff. The evidence seems 
to indicate two diff. words merged under this 
one form, one of them being also the source of 
shiver 1 , q. v. Cf. sheave 2 , a doublet of shive.] 
1 . A thin piece cut off ; a slice : as, a shive of 
bread. [Old and prov. Eng.] 
Easy it is 
Of a cut loaf to steal a shive, we know. 
Shak., Tit. And., ii. 1. 86. 
This sort of meat ... is often eaten in the beer shops 
with thick shines of bread. 
Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor, II. 255. 
2. A splinter: same as shiver 1 , 2. 3. A cork 
stopper large in diameter in proportion to its 
length, as the flat cork of a jar or wide-mouthed 
bottle. 4. A small iron wedge for fastening 
the bolt of a window-shutter. Halliwell. [Prov. 
Eng.] 
shiver 1 (shiv'er), B. [< ME. shiver, schivere, 
schyvere, schyvyr, shever, schevir (pi. scivren, 
scifren), prob. < AS. *scifera (not recorded), a 
thin piece, a splinter, = OHG. skivero, a splin- 
ter of stone, MHG. schivere, schiver, schever, a 
splinter of stone or wood, esp. of wood, G. 
schiefer (> Sw. skiffer = Dan. skifer), a splinter, 
shiver, slate ; with formative -er (-ra), < Tent. 
Vskif, separate, part, whence AS. sciftan, part, 
change, etc. : see shift. Prob. connected in part 
with shive: see skive. Hence shiver 1 , v., and 
ult. skiver, skewer, q. v.] If. Same as shive, 1. 
Of youre softe breed nat but a shyvere. 
Chaucer, Summoner's Tale, 1. 132. 
Tho keruer hym parys a schyuer so fre, 
And touches tho louys yn quere a-boute. 
Babees Book (E. E. T. S.), p. 322. 
2. A broken bit; a splinter; a sliver; one of 
many small pieces or fragments such as are 
produced by a sudden and violent shock or 
blow. Also shive. 
Scip arne [ran] to-gen scip 
Tha hit al towode to scifren. 
Layamon, 1. 4537. 
To fill up the fret with little shivers of a quill and glue, 
as some say will do well, by reason must be stark nought. 
Ascham, Toxophilus(ed. 1864), p. 115. 
Bussius saith that the rootes of reed, being stampt and 
mingled with hony, will draw out any thorne or shiver. 
Topsell, Beasts (1607), p. 421. (Halliu-ell.) 
He would pun thee into shivers with his fist, as a sailor 
breaks a biscuit. Shak., T. and C., ii. 1. 42. 
Thorns of the crown and shivers of the cross. 
Tennyson, Balin and Balan. 
3. In mineral., a species of blue slate; schist; 
shale. 4f. Naut., a sheave; the wheel of a 
pulley. 5. A small wedge or key. E. H. 
Knight. 
shiver 1 (shiv'er), v. [< ME. shiveren, schyveren, 
scheveren (= MD. scheveren, split, = MHG. 
Hchiveren, G. schiefcrn, separate in scales, ex- 
foliate); <. shiver 1 , .] I. trans. To break into 
shivery 
many small fragments or splinters ; shatter ; 
dash to pieces at a blow. 
Anil round about a border was entrayld 
< n broken bowes and arrowes shivered short. 
Spenser, F. Q., III. xi. 46. 
Shiver my timbers, an imprecation formerly used by 
sailors, especially in the nautical drama. =Syn. Shatter, 
etc. See '/"/,. 
II. intrans. To burst, fly, or fall at once into 
many small pieces or parts. 
Ther shyveren shaftes upon sheeldes thikke. 
Chaucer, Knight's Tale, 1. 1747. 
The reason given by him why the drop of glass so much 
wondered at shivers into so many pieces by breaking only 
one small part of it is approved for probable. 
Aubrey, Lives, Thomas Hobbes. 
The hard brands shiver on the steel, 
The splinter'd spear-shafts crack and fly. 
Tennyson, Sir Galahad. 
shiver 2 (shiv'er), r. [Early mod. E. also shever ; 
an altered form, perhaps due to confusion with 
shiver 1 , of ehiver, chyver, < ME. chiveren, cheveren, 
ehyveren, chivelen, chyvelen; appar. an assibi- 
lated form of "kiveren, supposed by Skeat to 
be a Scand. form of quiver: see quiver 1 . The 
resemblance to MD. schoeveren, "to shiver or 
shake "(Hexhain), is appar. accidental; the verb 
is trans. inKilian.] I. intrans. To shake; shud- 
der ; tremble ; quiver ; specifically, to shake 
with cold. 
The temple walles gan chiuere and schake, 
Veiles in the temple a-two thei sponne. 
Holy Rood (E. E. T. S.), p. 144. 
And as a letheren purs lolled his chekes, 
Wei sydder than his chyn thei chiueled [var. ychiueled] for 
elde. Piers Plowman (B), v. 182. 
And I that in forenight was with no weapon agasted . . . 
Now shiuer at shaddows. Stanihurst, jEneid, ii. 754. 
At last came drooping Winter slowly on, ... 
He quak'd and shiver'd through his triple fur. 
J. Beaumont, Psyche, iv. 64. 
= Syn. Shiver, Quake, Shudder, Quiver. We shiver with 
cold or a sensation like that of cold ; we quake with fear ; 
we shudder with horror. To quiver is to have a slight 
tremulous or fluttering motion : as, her lip quivered ; to 
quiver in every nerve. 
II. trans. Naut., to cause to flutter or shake 
in the wind, as a sail by trimming the yards or 
shifting the helm so that the wind strikes on 
the edge of the sail. 
If about to bear up, shiver the mizzen topsail or brail up 
the spanker. Luce, Seamanship, p. 367. 
shiver 2 (shiv'er), n. [< shiver 2 , v.'] A tremu- 
lous, quivering motion ; a shaking- or trembling- 
fit, especially from cold. 
Each sound from afar is caught, 
The faintest shiver of leaf and limb. 
Whittier, Mogg Megone, i 
It was a night to remember with a shiver lying down 
in that far-off wilderness with the reasonable belief that 
before morning there was an even chance of an attack of 
hostile Indians upon our camp. 
S. Bowles, In Merriam, II. 83. 
The Shivers, the ague ; chills : as, he has the shivers 
every second day. [Colloq.J 
shivered (shiv'erd),^). a. In her., represented as 
broken into fragments or ragged pieces: said 
especially of a lance. 
shivering 1 (shiv'er-ing), n. [< shiver 1 + -ing 1 .] 
A sliver; a strip. [Rare.] 
In stead of Occam they vse the shiuerings of the barke 
of the sayd trees. Hakluyt's Voyages, II. 270. 
shivering 2 (shiv'er-ing), n. [Verbal n. of shiv- 
er?, v.] A tremulous snaking or quivering, as 
with a chill or fear. 
Four days after the operation, my patient had a sudden 
and long shivering:. Dr. J. Brown, Eab. 
shiveringly (shiv'er-ing-li), adv. With or as 
with shivering or slight shaking. 
The very wavelets . . . seem to creep shiveringly to- 
wards the shallow waters. 
Pall Mall Gazette, March 31, 1886. (Encyc. Diet.) 
shiver-spar (shiv'er-spar), M. A variety of cal- 
cite or calcium carbonate: so called from its 
slaty structure. Also called slate-spar. 
shivery 1 (shiv'er-i), . [< shiver 1 + -y 1 .] Easi- 
ly falling into shivers or small fragments; not 
firmly cohering ; brittle. 
There were observed incredible numbers of these shells 
thus flatted, and extremely tender, in shivery stone. 
Woodward. 
shivery 2 (shiv'er-i), a. [< shiver 2 + -y 1 .] 1. 
Pertaining to or resembling a shiver or shiver- 
ing; characterized by a shivering motion: as, 
a shivery undulation. 2. Inclined or disposed 
to shiver. 
The mere fact of living in a close atmosphere begets a 
shivery, susceptible condition of the body. 
Jour, of Education, XVIII. 149. 
The frail, shivery, rather thin and withered little being, 
enveloped in a tangle of black silk wraps. 
H. B. Stowe, Oldtown, p. 294. 
