• (RP) IPA: /ˈkwɪvə/
• (America, Canada) enPR: kwĭˈvər, IPA: /ˈkwɪvɚ/

From Middle English quiver, from Anglo-Norman quivre, from odt cocar (source of Dutch koker, and cognate to Old English cocer), from Proto-West Germanic *kokar, said to be from xhc -, possibly from xgn-pro *kökexür; see there for more.

quiver (plural quivers)

1. (weaponry) A container for arrows, crossbow bolts or darts, such as those fired from a bow, crossbow or blowgun.
   • 1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “Much Adoe about Nothing”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act I, scene i], line 271:

     Don Pedro: Nay, if Cupid have not spent all his quiver in Venice, thou wilt quake for this shortly.

   • 1786, Francis Grose, A Treatise on Ancient Armour and Weapons, page 39:

     Arrows were carried in quiver, called also an arrow case, which served for the magazine, arrows for immediate use were worn in the girdle.

2. (figuratively) A ready storage location for figurative tools or weapons.

   He's got lots of sales pitches in his quiver.

3. (obsolete) A vulva.
4. (obsolete) The collective noun for cobras.
5. (mathematics) A multidigraph.

• French: carquois
• German: Köcher
• Italian: faretra
• Portuguese: aljava, fáretra, carcás
• Russian: колча́н
• Spanish: aljaba, carcaj, goldre

• French: tremblement, frisson, frémissement (of a person, of a voice)
• Russian: дрожь
• Spanish: temblar, temblor

From Middle English quiver, cwiver, from Old English *cwifer, probably related to cwic.

quiver

1. (archaic) Nimble, active.
   • c. 1596–1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act III, scene ii], line 281:

     [...] there was a little quiver fellow, and 'a would manage you his piece thus; and 'a would about and about, and come you in and come you in.

From Middle English quiveren, probably from the adjective.

quiver (quivers, present participle quivering; simple past and past participle quivered)

1. (intransitive) To shake or move with slight and tremulous motion.

   Synonyms: tremble, quake, shudder, shiver

   • c. 1588–1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Lamentable Tragedy of Titus Andronicus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act II, scene iii], line 12:

     The birds chaunt melodie on euerie buſh,
     The ſnakes^{[sic – meaning ſnake]} lies rolled in the chearefull ſunne,
     The greene leaues quiuer with the cooling winde,
     And make a checkerd ſhadow on the ground: [...]

   • 1712 (date written), [Joseph] Addison, Cato, a Tragedy. […], London: […] J[acob] Tonson, […], published 1713, →OCLC ↗, Act I, scene iv, page 2 ↗:

     And left the limbs still quivering on the ground.

   • 1851 November 13, Herman Melville, chapter 84, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC ↗, page 410 ↗:

     Next moment with a rapid, nameless impulse, in a superb lofty arch the bright steel spans the foaming distance, and quivers in the life spot of the whale.

   • 1919 October, John Galsworthy, chapter VIII, in Saint’s Progress, London: William Heinemann, published December 1919, →OCLC ↗, part III, page 300 ↗:

     And the moonlight on the Church seemed to shift and quiver—some pigeons perhaps had been disturbed up there.

• French: frémir
• German: flattern, zittern, zucken
• Italian: fremere
• Portuguese: tremer, estremecer
• Russian: дрожа́ть
• Spanish: temblar

Corruption of the French Cuivre, from cuivre ("copper").

1. Ellipsis of Quiver Creek A stream in Illinois, USA.
2. A twp in Mason County, Illinois, named after Quiver Creek.