▪ I. ˈshimmering, vbl. n.
[f. shimmer v.1 + -ing1. Cf. (M)LG. schêmering, MHG. schemerung twilight, G. schimmerung coruscation.]
The action of the vb. shimmer.
| c 1386 Chaucer Reeve's T. 377 A litel shymeryng [v.r. schemeryng] of a light. 1623 Bp. Hall Gt. Impostor Wks. (1625) 503 The..blinde man that thought he now saw a shimmering of the Sunne-beames. 1853 Kane Grinnell Exp. ix. (1856) 64 Looking toward the shore, I observed a sort of shimmering, as of the heated air above a stove. 1868 Helps Realmah iii, Kissed into ripples by the shimmering of moonlight. 1883 W. S. Dugdale Dante's Purg. i. 9, I discerned the shimmering of the sea. |
| fig. 1880 Todhunter Shelley vii. 199 It is a weak shimmering of forced fun. |
▪ II. ˈshimmering, ppl. a. That shimmers.
| c 1000 Gl. Prud. in Germania (N.S.) XI. 401/10 Scymriendes wæles, cerulei gurgitis. c 1230 Hali Meid. 31 Þat eadi trume of schimerinde meidenes. 13.. E.E. Allit. P. A. 80 Wyth schymeryng schene ful schrylle þay schynde. a 1400–50 Wars Alex. 1544 Shemerand shaftis of the shire son. c 1440 York Myst. i. 69 My schewyng es schemerande and schynande. 1557 T. Phaer æneid vi. Q 4 In shimring shadowe darck and thinne. 1593 G. Harvey Pierce's Super. 219 If some little shimering light appeare at a little creuise. 1655 W. Gurnall Chr. in Arm. i. 224 There is some shimmering light in all. 1840 Eliza Cook Poems 151 The towering hill, the shimmering rill. 1874 Symonds Sk. Italy & Greece (1898) I. vii. 124 The plain..basking in the hazy shimmering heat. 1881 Macm. Mag. XLIII. 345 The soft brilliancy of her toilet had the look of shimmering plumage. |
| fig. 1880 E. White Cert. Relig. 34 The vague and shimmering atmosphere of local and chronological detail. |
Add: Hence
ˈshimmeringly adv.| 1934 in Webster. 1979 Washington Post 15 June c3/1 The weather was shimmeringly perfect. 1988 Los Angeles Times 23 Mar. vi. 5/1 ‘Starfish’, the group's new album—propelled by the shimmeringly psychedelic single, ‘Under the Milky Way’—is looking like the breakthrough for the band. |