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SHI 151 
inaccurately given pcypc,) whence our sark. But skirt is, 
undoubtedly, the led'. scyrta, indusium,] The under linen 
garment of a man. Dr. Johnson .—And formerly, he might 
have added, of either sex. 
When we lay next us what we hold most dear. 
Like Hercules, envenom’d skirts we wear. 
And cleaving mischiefs. Dryden. 
Several persons in December had nothing over their shoul¬ 
ders but their shirts. Addison. 
. To SHIRT, v. a. To cover 5 to clothe as in a shirt. 
Ah ! for so many souls, as but this morn 
Were cloath’d with flesh, and warm’d with vital blood. 
But naked now, or skirted but with air. Dryden. 
SIII'RTLESS, adj. Wanting a shirt. 
Linsey-woolsey brothers, 
Grave mummers! sleeveless some, and shirt less others. 
Pope. 
' SHIRVAN, a province in the north of Persia, forming 
the largest and most important division of the southern Cau¬ 
casus. It consists of a large triangular peninsula, the point 
of which stretches into the Caspian. In consequence of this 
form, it varies extremely in breadth, which, at the extre¬ 
mity of the peninsula, is scarcely 16 miles, while in the in¬ 
terior part it amounts to 160. It is bounded on the north 
and east by Georgia and Daghestan 5 on the south by the 
Kur, which separates it from Ghilan and Aderbijan. The 
northern part consists of an extensive plain, inclosed by the 
mountains that extend towards the sea near Derbend. Nu¬ 
merous streams from the mountains greatly contribute to¬ 
wards the fertility of this plain, at the same time that they 
render the passage of an army extremely difficult. They 
branch off in various directions, are uncommonly rapid, and 
bemg shallow, have a wide channel, with a rough and 
sandy bed. The plain is interspersed with small woods 
and clumps of bushes, and the villages are surrounded with 
orchards, vineyards, and plantations of mulberries. The 
second division of Shirvan extends from the coast to the 
plain watered by the Kur, and is bounded by a higher 
range of mountains, which run in a south-east course through 
the province. The higher districts are here the most fertile: 
the part towards the sea is barren and devoid of water, and 
to the north of Baku is a desert track of considerable extent. 
The plain along the Kur is about 140 miles in length, and 
from 40 to 50 in breadth. It is in a great degree surrounded 
with mountains, and being exposed to frequent inundation, 
is greatly overgrown with rushes. The most elevated track 
in Shirvan is that which extends towards Lesghistan. It 
varies much in breadth, and is intersected by narrow valleys, 
iu many of which are small lakes, which continue filled, 
even in the greatest heat of summer. Shirvan may in ge¬ 
neral be esteemed a fertile country, being watered by num¬ 
berless rivers, some of which fall into the Khur, and others 
into the Caspian. The most considerable are the Samur, 
Deli, Sagaite, and Persagat. This province was annexed to 
the Persian empire in 1500, by Shah Ismael the First, and 
continued subject till the decline of the Sell dynasty, when 
the native princes, taking advantage of the weakness of 
Persia, re-established their independence. Recently, how¬ 
ever, the Russians have obtained possession of all the sea- 
coast, though the interior remains in the hands of the chiefs 
of Lesghisthan. The principal towns are Schamachi and 
Baku. 
SHISDRA, a small town of the interior of European 
Russia, in the government of Kaluga, on the river Shisdra, 
which joins the Oka. Population 1900; 77 miles south¬ 
west of Kaluga. 
SH 1 TAKOONTHA, a name of the Hindoo deity Siva. 
It means the blue-throated; the fable stating that he had 
swallowed poison in despair. 
SH1TLINGTON, a hamlet of England, in Northumber¬ 
land; 7 miles from Hexham. 
SHITLINGTON, a township of England, West Riding 
of Yorkshire; 4| miles south-west of Wakefield. Popula¬ 
tion 1410. 
SHI'TTAH, or Shittim, s. A sort of precious wood, 
of which Moses made the greatest part of the tables, altars, 
and planks belonging to the tabernacle. The wood is hard, 
tough, smooth, without knots,-and extremely beautiful. It 
grows in Arabia. Calmet. —I will plant in the wilderness 
the shittahA ree. Isa. —.Bring me an offering of badgers' 
skins and shittim- wood. Exodus. 
SHITTEN BAY, a bay on the west coast of the island of 
St. Christopher. 
SHITTERTON, a hamlet of England, in Dorsetshire, 
near Wareham, in the neighbourhood of which is an obe¬ 
lisk, and various remains of a Roman encampment. 
SHFTTLE, adj. [probably from the Germ, schutteln, to 
shake.] Wavering; unsettled: as a*foWe-headed or shit- 
f/e-brained person, which Sherwood gives in his dictionary 
and which Cotgrave explains by light- headed and giddy - 
headed. 
We passe not what the people say or tbinke: 
Their skittle hate makes none but cowards shrinke. Mir. 
SHI'TTLECOCK, s. [from schutteln. Germ., to shake; 
and called a cock from its feathers, or perhaps softened by 
frequent and rapid utterance from cork to cock.'] A cork 
stuck with feathers, and driven by players from one to an¬ 
other with battledoors.—You need not discharge a cannon 
to break the chain of his thoughts: the pat of a shittlecock, 
or the creaking of a jack, will do his business. Collier. 
SHPTTLENESS, s. Unsettledness; inconstancy; light¬ 
ness.—The vain shittleness of an unconstant head. Barret. 
SH1VE, s. [schyf, Dutch, a round slice, schyven, plur. 
Our word was anciently sheeve: and it may be referred to 
the Sax. pceapan, to shave, whence fceapSa, segmen, assula.] 
A slice of bread.—A sheeve of braid as brown as nut. 
Warner. 
Easy it is 
Of a cut loaf to steal a skive. Titus Andronicus. 
A thick splinter or lamina cut off from the main substance. 
—Shavings made by the plain are in some things differing 
from those skives, or thin and flexible pieces of wood, that 
are obtained by borers. Boyle. 
To SHIVER, v. n. To fall at once into many parts or 
shives. 
Had’st thou been aught but gossamer, feathers, air. 
So many fathom down precipitating, 
Thoud’st shiver'd like an egg. Skakspeare. 
To SHI'VER, v. a. To break by one act into many 
parts; to shatter.-—The ground with shiver'd armour strown. 
Milton. 
Showers of granado’s rain, by sudden burst 
Disploding murderous bowels ; fragments of steel 
A thousand ways at once, the shiver'd orbs 
Fly diverse, working torment. Philips . 
To SHIVER, v. n. [Icel. skefiur, concussiones; Germ., 
sckauren, tremere. Sereniusi] To quake ; to tremble; to 
shudder, as with cold or fear.—Why stand we longer shi¬ 
vering under fear. Milton. 
The man that shiver'd on the brink of sin. 
Thus steel’d and harden’d, ventures boldly in. Dryden. 
SHIVER, s. One fragment of many into which any 
thing is broken. 
As brittle as the glory is the face; 
For there it'is crack’d in an hundred skivers. Skakspeare. 
A thin slice; a little piece.—Of your white bread'a shiver. 
Chaucer. —The mote [is] a small thin shiver of wood. 
Hammond. —A shaking fit; a tremor; a spindle. Hist. 
—In naval language a wheel fixed in a channel or block. 
SHIVERING, s. Act of trembling.-r-Panic fears and 
shiverings oftentimes attend bloodguilty men, as long as 
they live. Goodman. —Division; dismemberment.—-Upon 
the 
