How to Use shudder in a Sentence

shudder

1 of 2 verb
  • The old car shuddered to a halt.
  • The house shuddered as a plane flew overhead.
  • Her body shuddered in a wave of tremors.
    — Literary Hub, 9 Feb. 2026
  • The mind shudders at the thought.
    — Assistant Sports Editor, Los Angeles Times, 12 Jan. 2026
  • Sat shuddering in my seat as the lights drew down.
    — Sally Jenkins, The Atlantic, 15 Feb. 2026
  • Hercules would shudder at the work this young man has to do.
    — Nick Canepa, San Diego Union-Tribune, 29 Nov. 2025
  • Some owners may shudder that their bar’s called a dive.
    — Rachel Bernhard, jsonline.com, 10 Nov. 2025
  • Certain felt the plane shudder and twist slightly to the left.
    — Jeremy Redmon, Smithsonian Magazine, 24 Oct. 2023
  • The van shuddered, shifted gear.
    — Literary Hub, 7 Aug. 2025
  • The picket fence shuddered as the ground opened beneath us to take us all down.
    — Hazlitt, 31 May 2023
  • When your ankle touched my shoulder / the cord shudders in the spine.
    — Stephanie Burt, New York Times, 3 Nov. 2017
  • That’s when a fearful, shuddering ball of fur caught his eye.
    — Scott Craven, azcentral, 11 Nov. 2019
  • People shuddered at the sight of it, or groaned, or covered their eyes.
    — Sam Kriss, Harpers Magazine, 24 Feb. 2026
  • One shudders to imagine how wealth, so conceived, would feel.
    — Michelle Orange, Harper's Magazine, 13 Dec. 2023
  • Most of us shudder at the idea of having to skip our morning cuppa.
    — Embry Roberts, Martha Stewart, 25 Apr. 2026
  • Those who shudder at the current state of the world can still hope — and plan for — a better day.
    — Jeff Sommer, New York Times, 10 Oct. 2020
  • The way the stadium shuddered with noise.
    — Sebastian Stafford-Bloor, New York Times, 7 May 2026
  • All the striped bass off the Jersey Shore should shudder in fear.
    — Jason Nark, Philly.com, 13 June 2018
  • Everytime one goes by, the car shudders.
    — Leon Hale, Houston Chronicle, 3 Mar. 2026
  • His head bounces inside the cockpit as a wheel shudders over a rumble strip.
    — Michael M. Grynbaum, New York Times, 13 May 2023
  • Many bibliophiles shudder at the thought of tossing a book in the trash.
    — Jason Daley, Smithsonian, 23 Feb. 2018
  • My pre-teen self just shuddered at the thought of JT’s manhood.
    — refinery29.com, 30 June 2018
  • And what about patients who might shudder at the thought of being zipped into a body bag?
    — oregonlive, 23 July 2021
  • And what about patients who might shudder at the thought of being zipped into body bags?
    — NBC News, 11 July 2021
  • Zhou Enlai the diplomat and opera-lover might have shuddered.
    — The Economist, 24 Oct. 2019
  • Many business owners shudder at the thought of cold pitching.
    — Expert Panel®, Forbes, 25 Feb. 2021
  • The wind moaned and shuddered, an eerie Halloween gale that seemed about three weeks too early.
    — Time, 19 Oct. 2017
  • Some people may shudder at the many ways Google has a hold on our lives online and that’s fair.
    — Chris Velazco, Washington Post, 26 June 2023
  • Nature lovers shuddered at the thought, though such a use is prohibited on the site.
    — Chicago Tribune Staff, Chicago Tribune, 21 Aug. 2023
  • And every Cubs fan should shudder at the thought of that coming somewhere else.
    — David Haugh, chicagotribune.com, 10 Dec. 2019

shudder

2 of 2 noun
  • Is there one of us who does not shudder to hear or read of them?
    — Kathryn Jean Lopez, National Review, 28 Aug. 2017
  • And my list has become … shudders … out of date.
    — Tim Britton, New York Times, 3 Nov. 2025
  • When sharing licks of ice cream with friends didn’t cause a shudder to go down your spine.
    — oregonlive, 15 July 2023
  • The names bring a shudder in our decade of calamitous wildfires.
    — Paula L. Woods, Los Angeles Times, 25 Jan. 2024
  • For Sang, the thought of returning to the pits brings a shudder.
    — TIME.com, 18 July 2017
  • The first thing the pilots would have heard or felt is a bang, sway, or shudder, as the engine failed.
    — Jack Stewart, WIRED, 17 Apr. 2018
  • Nothing sends a shudder down the spine like an email from your landlord or letting agent.
    — Vicky Spratt, refinery29.com, 26 Jan. 2022
  • But there's a shudder-inducing dark side to Bloom's good habit.
    — Carolyn L. Todd, SELF, 20 Jan. 2022
  • That poor teen having to consider (shudders) their back-up state school for a few weeks?
    — Anne Branigin, The Root, 13 Apr. 2018
  • Rising yields at the start of 2022 have sent a shudder through tech stocks.
    — Joe Wallace, WSJ, 10 Jan. 2022
  • When the line slows or stops at a factory, the impact sends shudders back through the network.
    — Grace Schneider, The Courier-Journal, 19 Mar. 2020
  • The massive hack sent shudders through the department.
    — Richard Winton, Los Angeles Times, 8 Apr. 2026
  • This stop-start is among the smoothest on the market, reviving the gas engine with nary a shudder.
    — Andrew Krok, Car and Driver, 18 May 2023
  • For most people, the thought of spending nine hours in coach on an airplane provokes a full-body shudder.
    — Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren, USA TODAY, 30 June 2017
  • The crash itself is a white-knuckle sequence in which every shudder of the aircraft is felt.
    — David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter, 14 Sep. 2023
  • Some shudder at the thought Norton could have remained a Bruin this whole time.
    — Ben Bolch, Los Angeles Times, 20 Aug. 2022
  • That wouldn't touch the biggest jetliners, but the idea sent a shudder through the industry.
    — Samantha Masunaga, latimes.com, 4 Apr. 2018
  • Many Albertans — even those who were babies at the time — shudder at its mere mention.
    — Amanda Coletta, Washington Post, 28 Nov. 2019
  • The Stars shudder to think about what life without Jake Oettinger might look like.
    — Dallas News, 29 Oct. 2022
  • Toschi’s mother, with a final shudder, threw some covers over the furniture and closed the place down.
    — Nancy Hass Simon Watson, New York Times, 29 Sep. 2022
  • These questions are enough to make journalists and PR folk shudder.
    — April Margulies, Forbes, 4 June 2021
  • Then the world changed in early 2020 — but those trends held more or less true, after a brief shudder.
    — Kim Velsey, Curbed, 6 Oct. 2021
  • But as the season progressed, the [shudders] discourse really went off the rails.
    — Christian Zilko, IndieWire, 7 Jan. 2026
  • If so, the mere mention of the title probably elicits shudders.
    — Bill Goodykoontz, azcentral, 20 Feb. 2020
  • Accelerating from walking pace, the bike can roll off in 2nd gear with nary a shudder.
    — Dan Neil, WSJ, 13 May 2021
  • Lillard left the bubble early — and sent a shudder through Rip City — with a knee injury.
    — Joe Freeman, oregonlive, 30 Aug. 2020
  • The apparent stiffness of its body structure is remarkable, with only a rare hint of shudder in the cowl.
    — Kevin Smith, Car and Driver, 30 Dec. 2022
  • The mere sight of tourists wearing the leather-and-cork sandals with socks used to make fashionistas shudder on the avenues of Paris.
    — Nick Kostov, WSJ, 26 Feb. 2021
  • The details of this feat, performed before a crowd in downtown Phoenix, still make those with acrophobia shudder.
    — Douglas C. Towne, AZCentral.com, 5 Sep. 2025
  • The entire process from the moment the malicious code had been triggered to that first shudder had spanned only a fraction of a second.
    — Andy Greenberg, Wired, 23 Oct. 2020

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'shudder.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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