The Fed chairman, a Princeton academic with an occasional quaver in his voice, leaned toward the speakerphone on his office coffee table and spoke unusually bluntly to Mr. Kitty Wells's hits would never have had the impact and staying power they've had were it not for the simple expressiveness and intensity of her singing - and that quaver in her voice that always seemed to show at just the right moment emotionally. Source nullĪs Buckingham finger-picks a folk melody, and as the rest of the band members drift out of the way, Nicks begins to sing in a voice that's rougher and more ragged than the petite quaver of yore, but still wrenchingly vulnerable. His signature seems almost to quaver, and not only does he fail to form the individual letters with the precision that is present in the formal gothic script, but the ink fades out towards the end of each line. Source nullĮdgy and tightly wound, Masterson makes a good romantic contrast to his dewy reticence, and Quinn (with his Clift-like quaver) more than holds his own as the straight man in this carnival of quirk. So did the preternatural quality of his guitar playing, the bone-deep sadness of some of his music and lyrics, the haunting quaver of his smooth, high voice, and the dark symbolism of his songs. Though Bruce Springsteen's gruff bark is an uncomfortable fit with Davies's camp quaver, they recast Better Things as a Byrdsy ramble that's an improvement on the original's clumping new wave. The English term for eighth-notes gets it right with 'quaver', since these and other notes can do exactly that when played with alternating intensity, and even, suggests Quantz, duration. He pointed a finger at Thrace, a deliberate calm tightly wrapped around the steel anger in his voice, controlling the quaver that threatened to betray his real condition. Source nullĬontinuing to quaver in the aftershocks of L.A., the president conducted more photo ops and began desultory negotiations with Congress over an 'urban agenda' package. Hester wiped away two large tears on to a dear little handkerchief just large enough to receive them, and went on with a quaver in her voice. Source nullįor a blues singer, he was more of a crooner than a croaker, and his voice sometimes had a quaver that could sound haunted or seductive. I reach for his hand, bird bones in mine although radiation and chemo rendered him a wraith, his fingertips quaver from adrenalin. The final name, which Miss Temple had put to her aunt with a quaver in her otherwise sure interrogation, met with a hapless shrug. The worth of such actions is not a thing to be decided in a quaver of sensibility or a flush of righteous commonsense. It does not matter, though, because even philosophers quaver in the face of death, Socrates notwithstanding. Politicians quaver as the backlash proves larger and angrier than what they thought they'd signed up for. shrugs - who asked him to start staring at me. His lips start to quaver everytime i give him a stare. Source nullīut a tender, minute quaver in the negation showed that there was something forced in that statement. Peter, Paul and Mary use it to make a point: their voices quaver with outraged, pious indignation. There was no quaver in his voice, no question of whether this was a good thing or bad. I recognized Hettie's voice, the musical Guyanese accent, the slight quaver of age. Singer stayed with his quiet voice, but now it took on a perceptible quaver. He dabbed his eyes, trying desperately to control the quaver in his voice. She speaks with cheerful firmness but I can hear the quaver in her voice. 'We'll find it,' Ted said, though there was a quaver in his voice. Source nullĪ quaver in his voice made him sound both chastened and scared. View other definitions How can quaver be used in a sentence?Įveryone turned, shocked at the quaver in his voice.

Quaver definition