shimmy
English edit
Etymology edit
A back-formation from chemise (mistaken for a plural).
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
shimmy (plural shimmies)
- A dance move involving thrusting the shoulders back and forth alternately.
- A dance that was popular in the 1920s.
- 1930, Jefferis & Nichols, Safe Counsel or Practical Eugenics, page 200:
- The tango, the Texas Tommy, Walking the Dog, the one step, the fox trot, the shimmy, and all their out-growths, had their origin in the palaces of lust on the Barbary Coast of San Francisco.
- An abnormal vibration, especially in the wheels of a vehicle.
- (rare) A sleeveless chemise.
Derived terms edit
Translations edit
dance movement
dance that was popular in the 1920s
abnormal vibration, especially in the wheels of a vehicle
sleeveless chemise
Verb edit
shimmy (third-person singular simple present shimmies, present participle shimmying, simple past and past participle shimmied)
- (dance) To perform a shimmy (dance movement involving thrusting the shoulders back and forth alternately).
- 1934, James T. Farrell, chapter 13, in The Young Manhood of Studs Lonigan:
- She wondered would he think her awful, and try to get fresh if she shimmied. Fellows often did. But he was so cute. And a girl had to something about that, and if she didn't shimmy, she might do something worse.
- To climb something (e.g. a pole) gradually (e.g. using alternately one's arms then one's legs).
- He shimmied up the flagpole.
- The static made her dress shimmy up her leg.
- (intransitive) To vibrate abnormally, as a broken wheel.
- 1966, Thomas Pynchon, The Crying of Lot 49, New York: Bantam Books, published 1976, →ISBN, page 37:
- They came in among earth-moving machines, a total absence of trees, the usual hieratic geometry, and eventually, shimmying for the sand roads, down in a helix to a sculptured body of water named Lake Inverarity.
- (intransitive, rare) To shake the body as if dancing the shimmy.
- (intransitive, video games) To move across a narrow ledge, either by hanging from it or by strafing on it along the wall.
- 2009, Allison Schubert, Lunabean.com's Videogame Guides of 2008: Adventure 3-Pack:
- Jump up to the ledge on your right and shimmy around the corner.
- 1999, Prima Development, The Big PlayStation Book:
- Climb on top of the room and drop down to shimmy along its back ledge.
Synonyms edit
Derived terms edit
Translations edit
to perform a shimmy (dance movement)
to shake the body as if dancing the shimmy
French edit
Noun edit
shimmy m (plural shimmys)
- shimmy (1920s dance)
Further reading edit
- “shimmy”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.