verb
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a trembling/shaking voice (=a voice that shakes because someone is very nervous or frightened)
▪ He stood up and began to speak in a trembling voice.
be trembling with excitement (=to be shaking slightly because you are so excited)
▪ Her hands were trembling with excitement as she opened the letter.
sb's hands shake/tremble
▪ His hands trembled as he lifted the cup.
sb’s voice trembles/shakes (=sounds unsteady)
▪ His voice shook with anger.
shake/tremble with fear
▪ He was shaking with fear after being held at gunpoint.
shake/tremble with rage
▪ His wife was shaking with rage.
tremble/shiver/shake etc violently
▪ I was still trembling violently.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
slightly
▪ The major's hand trembled slightly as he took the cigarette.
▪ I noticed that his hands were trembling slightly, and he seemed to be blinking back tears.
▪ As he got on his bike, Jack found himself trembling slightly.
▪ Voice trembling slightly, I sang the first chorus, mouth too near the mike, and glided towards the stool.
▪ Now though she was feeling nervous, unsure of herself, and she could feel herself beginning to tremble slightly.
▪ Slowly, as quietly as he could, Jack pushed through the undergrowth, trembling slightly in anticipation of what might happen.
▪ A hand that trembled slightly brushed against his forehead as if it could wipe away the weariness.
▪ His voice trembled slightly, but he didn't think the head noticed.
so
▪ His hands were trembling so much he was forced to hide them under the sheets.
▪ The vessel trembled so violently that Robinson thought she would crumble to pieces.
▪ My voice was trembling so much, I sounded like Edith Piaf with Parkinson's disease.
▪ His hands trembled so violently that he was unable to bring it to his lips.
▪ Perdita was trembling so badly that she could hardly zip up her boots.
▪ The Collector's hands trembled so badly that he had to rest the telescope on the shattered window sill.
▪ She was trembling so violently that the bed shook.
▪ She could hardly dress, her fingers were trembling so much.
still
▪ She was still trembling a little inside, and the thought of staying here in this house on her own made her nervous.
▪ Eight years later, some of the children still tremble when they see their alleged assailants, who remain in the community.
▪ She looked up at him in confusion, her body still trembling, lips still swollen from his kiss.
▪ She sank back into her seat, still trembling.
violently
▪ When he finally let her go she was still speechless - and trembling violently.
▪ My legs and arms tremble violently, but I do not cry.
▪ The shuttle trembled violently as it accelerated along the runway.
▪ I was trembling violently from head to foot.
▪ He shivered again, and began to tremble violently.
▪ He had been trembling violently for several hours but now no sound came from the place where he lay.
▪ His body remained stiff and taut, even though he wanted to tremble violently.
▪ She's trembling violently and she starts to retch, leaning against me for support as the heaving racks her.
■ NOUN
anger
▪ Her hands were trembling with anger.
▪ But oh, what that woman did then, which even now sets me to trembling with both anger and desire.
▪ I stood there trembling with humiliation and anger.
▪ I could tell Roque was trembling with anger, and I admit to feeling bad when he slammed down the phone.
body
▪ Her hands brushed the keys, her head began to nod, then her body to tremble.
▪ All I had to do was wait until my breath no longer came in short gasps and my body quit trembling.
▪ My whole body trembled when he came near.
▪ She looked up at him in confusion, her body still trembling, lips still swollen from his kiss.
▪ Was this how women cried, their whole bodies trembling?
▪ Her body was trembling with fear.
▪ He held me so high in the air that my whole body trembled.
excitement
▪ Her fingers trembling with excitement, she fastened it around her neck.
▪ When I got there, my daughter greeted me with trembling excitement.
fear
▪ Days of fear and trembling until it blew over.
▪ I urged myself, struggling with my swamping fear, my trembling guts.
finger
▪ Her fingers trembling with excitement, she fastened it around her neck.
▪ Reading it, my finger trembled.
▪ For a moment his fingers trembled, hovering over it, and then he gripped it firmly with both hands.
▪ He fished out a cigar and lighted it with fingers which were trembling.
▪ She could hardly dress, her fingers were trembling so much.
▪ He fumbled to unclip the keys from his belt and his fingers were trembling as he tried to unlock the door.
▪ She stroked a sun-warmed block of stone with fingers that trembled.
▪ Annoyed to find her fingers trembling, she tore it open.
hand
▪ Surkov's hand trembled as he lit another cigarette.
▪ In the hallway my hand trembled as I picked up the receiver.
▪ Susan clasped her hands because she was trembling, but the tension in her locked fingers only made her shake the more.
▪ Or maybe it was my hand that was trembling.
▪ But never mind, though their blue-veined old hands might be trembling their fingers could still pull a trigger.
▪ Pearl was saying, lifting the binoculars, her hands trembling, the lenses tapping the window pane.
▪ His hands trembled so violently that he was unable to bring it to his lips.
▪ Miguel waited for his car to pass by them before he got back into the car, his hands cold and trembling.
knee
▪ As he walked forward with his escorts, his knees trembled suddenly.
▪ Her knees trembled underneath her raincoat.
▪ She did, but only just, reaching the cafe breathless and with her knees trembling.
▪ As I started toward my brother, I felt my knees trembling.
▪ I walk towards her with my knees trembling.
▪ There was an evil-tasting fluid in my mouth, and my knees trembled.
leg
▪ His legs were trembling so that his hands wouldn't keep still.
▪ My legs had begun to tremble, with fear now, not anger.
▪ My legs and arms tremble violently, but I do not cry.
▪ She had to sit, her legs were trembling.
▪ My legs trembled and my arms felt as limp as cloth.
▪ The female had been put in her place, her legs made to tremble.
lip
▪ He could see that her lower lip was trembling and that her eyes were moist.
▪ He noticed that when she saw him, a tiny sparkle came into her eyes and her lips trembled a little.
▪ Young Zuwaya talked with anger and shock, lips and hands trembling, about the perfidy of the Magharba.
▪ Hardin looked up to see Pirenne facing him, eyes tragic and lips trembling.
▪ Her lips parted - trembling - as she hovered on the brink of speech.
▪ His lips trembled, and he felt strangely compelled to shout a defiant slogan.
▪ His enthusiasm faded, his voice hesitated, his lips trembled, his eyes dropped in confusion.
▪ Miguel stood still, lips trembling.
mouth
▪ Her tiny pink mouth was trembling.
▪ Howard paused, fists clenched, mouth trembling.
▪ She could feel her mouth trembling with reaction.
▪ Russell pushed the soup bowl away and wiped his mouth with a trembling hand.
▪ Her mouth softened and trembled beneath his.
rage
▪ Not surprisingly, Gelernter, 42, still is trembling with rage four years after the bomb went off.
▪ A soldier yells at us to be quiet, and the two of us stand silent and trembling with rage.
▪ Forester was staring at the cottages and the cars, his fists bunched up hard, trembling with rage.
▪ For an instant the familiar grounds glare and tremble, the prisoner rages at his bars.
▪ He trembled, with rage, with panic.
▪ Woolley, arms folded, watched him get up and limp away, trembling with rage.
voice
▪ My voice was trembling so much, I sounded like Edith Piaf with Parkinson's disease.
▪ Ritchie said, his voice trembling.
▪ The voice wheezed and trembled a little.
▪ Oh man, her voice was trembling.
▪ His voice trembled slightly, but he didn't think the head noticed.
▪ She seemed really upset, her voice trembling a little.
▪ He was gaunt and hollow-eyed; his voice trembled.
■ VERB
begin
▪ Then, suddenly, he began to tremble.
▪ The clerk, standing beside the filing cabinet, began to tremble.
▪ She had begun to tremble with a sort of frightened and frustrated fury.
▪ And there on the floor she began to tremble.
▪ Moon-Watcher began to tremble uncontrollably; he felt as if his brain would burst, and wanted to turn away his eyes.
▪ Jessamy discovered that she had begun to tremble.
▪ The little house began to tremble with vibrating pipes and an outburst of cranky voices.
feel
▪ He didn't scream but she felt him tremble and he made a small, pathetic groan, like an angry puppy.
▪ As I started toward my brother, I felt my knees trembling.
▪ She could feel him trembling with fever and cold, although he was close to the fire which burned merrily now.
▪ At the very thought he felt a tendency to tremble.
▪ When I left the pharmacy with my call uncompleted, I could feel my legs trembling.
▪ Then he felt the floor tremble beneath his feet, and a deep throated rumble rose from the bowels of the building.
▪ She felt them tremble with expectation, parting, a little out of control.
seem
▪ The rope seemed to tremble, as if something was moving along it.
▪ As the countdown reaches the two-minute mark, the room seems to tremble.
▪ Even her red hair seemed to be trembling.
▪ As he stood there, smoking in his jeans and earth-tone shirt he seemed to be trembling.
▪ The room seemed to tremble and grow larger again, and the air to settle back into tranquillity.
sit
▪ It had sat trembling in his hand, its brown eyes full of the same terror he saw now in Ann's.
▪ Carol was dying, and he cried out in his sleep and sat up trembling with cold sweats in the heat.
▪ Pipkin sat trembling under a fern, his ears drooping on either side of his head.
▪ Later on, he sat trembling on the dock.
▪ When he had left the room, Mr Trotter sat down, trembling.
stand
▪ She stood trembling, staring at the blank window, feeling smaller than a baby.
▪ A soldier yells at us to be quiet, and the two of us stand silent and trembling with rage.
▪ She stood still, though trembling, until the car moved off, and then she fled toward Jane's.
▪ Miguel stood still, lips trembling.
▪ Daisy, seeking above all not to betray Aunt Millie, had stood her ground, trembling, white-faced.
▪ I jumped out of bed and stood trembling.
▪ When the sickness abated, he stood, sweating and trembling.
▪ Thus for more than two mortal hours the momentous issue stood trembling in the balance.
start
▪ She started to tremble deep inside, a nervous quivering that was beyond her control.
▪ When he started to tremble, he figured this was the best way to catch a cold.
▪ The hand starts trembling way out there.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ Ginna's whole body trembled as she spoke about her son's death.
▪ Jane's lip began to tremble and I though she was going to cry.
▪ Polly hid behind the door, trembling with fear.
▪ The dog sat trembling in a corner.
▪ The ground beneath them trembled as the trucks rolled past.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ I hurried home, my heart pounding and my hands trembling in spite of myself-I could not believe it.
▪ Miguel stood still, lips trembling.
▪ She trembled involuntarily when she saw him.
▪ She had begun to tremble with a sort of frightened and frustrated fury.
▪ She was still trembling a little inside, and the thought of staying here in this house on her own made her nervous.
▪ While this cooked Baucis set the table with her trembling old hands.