Library / English Dictionary

SHIMMER

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

A weak and tremulous light

Example:

the play of light on the water

Synonyms:

play; shimmer

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Hypernyms ("shimmer" is a kind of...):

alteration; change; modification (an event that occurs when something passes from one state or phase to another)

Derivation:

shimmer (give off a shimmering reflection, as of silk)

shimmer (shine with a weak or fitful light)

shimmery (glistening tremulously)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Give off a shimmering reflection, as of silk

Classified under:

Verbs of being, having, spatial relations

Hypernyms (to "shimmer" is one way to...):

gleam; glint; glisten; glitter; shine (be shiny, as if wet)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s

Derivation:

shimmer (a weak and tremulous light)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Shine with a weak or fitful light

Example:

Beech leaves shimmered in the moonlight

Classified under:

Verbs of raining, snowing, thawing, thundering

Hypernyms (to "shimmer" is one way to...):

beam; shine (emit light; be bright, as of the sun or a light)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s

Sentence examples:

Lights shimmer on the horizon

The horizon is shimmering with lights

Derivation:

shimmer (a weak and tremulous light)

Credits

 Context examples: 

Uranus will send the Sun and new moon his shimmering rays, so future weeks will be filled with surprises that you would have never expected but will be thrilled when they arrive.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

Beyond was the long sweep of the woods, and in the center, shimmering vaguely through the gloom, was the great lake, the mother of strange monsters.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

For two days the yellow cog ran swiftly before a northeasterly wind, and on the dawn of the third the high land of Ushant lay like a mist upon the shimmering sky-line.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Her face shimmered before his eyes as he walked along,—pale and serious, sweet and sensitive, smiling with pity and tenderness as only a spirit could smile, and pure as he had never dreamed purity could be.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

In my memories of those days she is clad always in some purple shimmering stuff, with a white kerchief round her long white neck, and I see her fingers turning and darting as she works at her knitting.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

This one is a shimmering new moon, supportive in so many ways.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

The air above it was shimmering with heat, and the ground round was so hot that I could hardly bear to lay my hand on it.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

In the yellow shimmer of the autumn sunshine it lay as peacefully and as still as he had oft pictured it to himself in his dreams.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

One instant he was astride a broncho and flying through the fairy-colored Painted Desert country; the next instant he was gazing down through shimmering heat into the whited sepulchre of Death Valley, or pulling an oar on a freezing ocean where great ice islands towered and glistened in the sun.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

On December 3, you will make a fine impression at an interview, for on this day, Mars will make a shimmering aspect to Venus in your behind-the-scenes sector.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)