subs. phr. (common).—A figure of speech describing the effect of illness, intense fear or any violent emotion. An American equivalent is a ‘cold shake,’ which may refer alike to a period of cold weather, and an attack of fever and ague.
1864. Derby Day, p. 50. ‘There’s our friend the Littl’un,’ he resumed; ‘he’s all shivery shakey as if he got the staggers or the COLD SHIVERS, and was going wurra, wurra, wurra, between his teeth, as if he couldn’t help himself.’
