tremble

From Middle English tremblen, from Old French trembler, from Late Latin tremulāre, ultimately from Latin tremere (“quiver, shake”). Cognate with Ancient Greek τρέμω (trémō).

• IPA^(key): /ˈtɹɛmbl̩/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: trem‧ble

tremble (third-person singular simple present trembles, present participle trembling, simple past and past participle trembled)

1. (intransitive) To shake, quiver, or vibrate.

   Her lip started to tremble as she burst into tears

   The dog was trembling from being in the cold weather all day.

   • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter IV, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:

     Mr. Cooke at once began a tirade against the residents of Asquith for permitting a sandy and generally disgraceful condition of the roads. So roundly did he vituperate the inn management in particular, and with such a loud flow of words, that I trembled lest he should be heard on the veranda.

2. (intransitive, figurative) To fear; to be afraid.

   Synonym: quail

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, James 2:19:

     Thou beleeuest that there is one God, thou doest well: the deuils also beleeue, and tremble.

tremble (plural trembles)

1. A shake, quiver, or vibration.

Inherited from Latin tremulus.

• IPA^(key): /tʁɑ̃bl/

• Audio:

  (file)

tremble m (plural trembles)

1. aspen

tremble

1. inflection of trembler:
   1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
   2. second-person singular imperative

• “tremble”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.