shimmy

plural shimmies

1. A dance move involving thrusting the shoulders back and forth alternately.

   What is certain, however, is that the president-elect’s signature shimmy is currently en vogue with all manner of professional athletes, imitated by at least five National Football League players on Sunday, […].

   2024 November 18, Jesse McKinley, “Trump’s Signature Dance Move Finds Its Way to the Sports World”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

2. A dance that was popular in the 1920s.

   The tango, the Texas Tommy, Walking the Dog, the one step, the fox trot, the shimmy, and all their out-growths, had their origin in the palaces of lust on the Barbary Coast of San Francisco.

   1930, Jefferis & Nichols, Safe Counsel or Practical Eugenics, page 200

3. An abnormal vibration, especially in the wheels of a vehicle.
4. rareA sleeveless chemise.

present singular third person shimmies · participle present shimmying · participle past shimmied · past shimmied

1. danceTo perform a shimmy (dance movement involving thrusting the shoulders back and forth alternately).

   She wondered would he think her awful, and try to get fresh if she shimmied. Fellows often did. But he was so cute. And a girl had to something about that, and if she didn't shimmy, she might do something worse.

   1934, James T. Farrell, chapter 13, in The Young Manhood of Studs Lonigan

2. To climb something (e.g. a pole) gradually (e.g. using alternately one's arms then one's legs).

   He shimmied up the flagpole.

   1 more example

   The static made her dress shimmy up her leg.

   Synonyms: shinny, shin

3. intransitiveTo vibrate abnormally, as a broken wheel.

   They came in among earth-moving machines, a total absence of trees, the usual hieratic geometry, and eventually, shimmying for the sand roads, down in a helix to a sculptured body of water named Lake Inverarity.

   1966 March, Thomas Pynchon, The Crying of Lot 49, New York, N.Y.: Bantam Books, published November 1976, →ISBN, page 37

4. intransitiverareTo shake the body as if dancing the shimmy.
5. intransitivevideo gamesTo move across a narrow ledge, either by hanging from it or by strafing on it along the wall.

   Jump up to the ledge on your right and shimmy around the corner.

   2009, Allison Schubert, Lunabean.com's Videogame Guides of 2008: Adventure 3-Pack

   1 more example

   Climb on top of the room and drop down to shimmy along its back ledge.

   1999, Prima Development, The Big PlayStation Book