Obs. exc. dial. Forms: 1 cwifer, 3 cwiuer, couer, 5 qwy-, 5–6 quyuer, (6 que-), 5–7 quiuer, 6, 9 quiver. [OE. *cwifer, prob. onomatopœic: cf. QUIVER v.2] Active, nimble; quick, rapid.

1

c. 960.  [implied in QUIVERLY].

2

a. 1225.  Ancr. R., 140. Þet fleshs is her et home … ant for þui hit is cwointe & cwiuer [v.r. couer].

3

1398.  Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVIII. xv. (1495), 774. Some wylde oxen ben … moost qwyuer and swyfte.

4

1519.  Horman, Vulg., 281. He or she is a quyuer gester.

5

1548.  Udall, Erasm. Par. Luke ii. 34. Of body feble and impotent, but of soule quiuer and lustie.

6

1567.  Turberv., Epit., etc. 46 b. Thy quick and quiuer wings.

7

1597.  Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., III. ii. 301. A little quiuer fellow.

8

1823.  E. Moor, Suffolk Words, 302. We … use the word in a sense of briskness, smartness—‘He’s a quiver little fellow.’

9