Also 4–9 -our, 5 -oure. [ME. tremour, a. OF. tremor, -our fear, terror (13th c. in Godef.), also a trembling or quivering (15th c.):—L. tremor, -ōrem, f. tremĕre to tremble. In 17th c. reintroduced in L. form tremor.]
† 1. Terror. Obs.
c. 1374. Chaucer, Troylus, V. 255. Swich a tremor [v.r. tremour] fele a-boute his herte That of þe feer his body sholde quake.
1490. Caxton, Eneydos, xv. 60. To solace and dysporte thy self euermore wyth the thondre and weddrynges, for to gyue unto vs tremoure and feere. Ibid., xxii. 81. Horrible dremes & cruel, comen to-fore her in hir mynde that tormente her in tremoure merueyllous.
2. Involuntary agitation of the body or limbs, resulting from physical infirmity or from fear or other strong emotion; trembling: see quot. 1866.
[1611. Shaks., Wint. T., I. ii. 110. I haue Tremor Cordis on me: my heart daunces.]
1615. Crooke, Body of Man, 401. The disease called Tremor, or the shaking palsie.
1762–71. H. Walpole, Vertue’s Anecd. Paint. (1786), IV. 154. His lips are contracted by tremor.
1807. Med. Jrnl., XVII. 428. An approach to syncope, accompanied with more or less of universal tremor, and spasmodic twitchings, are said to have occurred.
1866. A. Flint, Princ. Med. (1880), 815. Tremor, that is, alternate contraction and relaxation of muscles in rapid succession, is a symptom of certain lesions of the nervous centres.
b. With a and pl. An instance of this; a fit of trembling.
1616. Bullokar, Eng. Expos., Tremour, a trembling.
1731. Arbuthnot, Aliments, v. (1735), 146. By its styptick and stimulating Quality it [tea] affects the Nerves … occasioning Tremors.
1813. J. Thomson, Lect. Inflam., 97. A tremor of the hands is often lessened or removed, for a while, by a dram, or some strong wine.
1871. R. Ellis, Catullus, lxiv. 305. To a tremor of age their gray infirmity rocking.
c. fig. A nervous thrill caused by emotion or excitement; also, a state of tremulous agitation or excitement.
1754. Richardson, Grandison, IV. vii. 51. He ceased speaking. I was in tremors.
1814. Scott, Ld. of Isles, VI. ii. The tremors that unbidden rise.
1838. Dickens, Nich. Nick., xxviii. He went about all day in a tremor of delight.
1866. G. Macdonald, Ann. Q. Neighb., xii. [She] drew herself up very haughtily … to hide her tremor.
3. A tremulous or vibratory movement caused by some external impulse; a vibration, shaking, quivering. Earth-tremor, an earthquake.
1635. Heywood, Hierarch., IX. 570. One of these Tremors lasted forty dayes, When six and twenty tow’rs and castles fell.
1656. Blount, Glossogr., Tremor, quaking, trembling, shaking, great fear, also an earthquake.
1728. Pemberton, Newton’s Philos., 270. Motion consequent upon the tremors of the air, excited by the vibrations of sonorous bodies.
1830. Lyell, Princ. Geol., I. 324. All countries are liable to slight tremors … when some great crisis of subterranean movement agitates an adjoining volcanic region.
1853. Kane, Grinnell Exp., xxix. (1856), 250. The peculiar tremor of a cotton-factory.
1878. Huxley, Physiogr., 187. Waves or tremors may be propagated in all directions through the solid ground.
4. A tremble or quaver in the voice; a tremulous sound or note.
1797. Mrs. Radcliffe, Italian, ii. The tremor of his voice … heightened its eloquence.
1838. Lytton, Calderon, ii. There seemed a touch of true feeling in the tremour of his rich sweet voice.
1866. G. Macdonald, Ann. Q. Neighb., xxxi. There was a tremor in the old lady’s voice more of disappointment and hurt than of anger.
5. attrib., as tremor disk, the telescopic image of a star, as apparently enlarged by the vibration of the telescope and of the atmosphere; tremor storm, a prolonged series of earth-tremors.
1889. Milne, in Nature, 31 Oct., 658/1. At certain seasons tremor storms are very marked.
1905. H. F. Newall, in Athenæum, 29 April, 534/1. On the general design of spectrographs for equatorials of large aperture, considered from the point of view of ‘tremor discs.’
Hence Tremorful a. dial., Tremorous a. rare, full of tremor; tremulous.
1901. ‘Zack,’ Tales Dunstable Weir, 39. ‘I’ll not go nigh the maid,’ Martin cried, sort of tremorful.
1907. F. Thompson, New Poems, Orient Ode, 28. The tremorous nurse of joy.
