shoulder

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Contents

English [edit]

Etymology [edit]

From Middle English sholder, shulder, schulder, from Old English sculdor, sculdra (“shoulder”), from West Germanic *skuldra (“shoulder”), of uncertain origin. Perhaps related to Proto-Germanic *skelduz (“shield”), see shield. Cognate with Old Frisian skuldere (“shoulder”), Middle Low German scholder (“shoulder”), Dutch schouder (“shoulder”), German Schulter (“shoulder”).

Pronunciation [edit]

Noun [edit]

shoulder (plural shoulders)

  1. The part of the human torso forming a relatively horizontal surface running away from the neck.
    • The parrot was sitting on Steve's shoulder.
    • 1910, Emerson Hough, chapter 1, The Purchase Price[1]:
      With just the turn of a shoulder she indicated the water front, where, at the end of the dock on which they stood, lay the good ship, Mount Vernon, river packet, the black smoke already pouring from her stacks.
  2. (anatomy) The joint between the arm and the torso, sometimes including the surrounding muscles, tendons, and ligaments.
  3. Anything forming a shape resembling a human shoulder.
  4. A part of a road where drivers may stop in an emergency; a hard shoulder.
    • He stopped the car on the shoulder of the highway to change the flat tire.
  5. A cut of meat comprised of the upper joint of the foreleg and the surrounding muscle.
  6. The portion of a garment where the shoulder is clothed.
  7. The portion of a hill or mountain just below the peak.
  8. The lateral protrusion of a hill or mountain.
  9. (printing) The flat portion of type that is below the bevelled portion that joins up with the face.
  10. (music) The rounded portion of stringed instrument where the neck joins the body.
  11. The rounded portion of a bottle where the neck meets the body.
  12. (firearms) The angled section between the neck and the main body of a cartridge .

Derived terms [edit]

Terms derived from shoulder

Translations [edit]

top of the torso, away from the neck
joint between arm and torso
part of a road where drivers may stop in an emergency
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.
Translations to be checked

Verb [edit]

shoulder (third-person singular simple present shoulders, present participle shouldering, simple past and past participle shouldered)

  1. (transitive) To push (a person or thing) using one's shoulder.
    • (Can we date this quote?) Edmond Spenser
      As they the earth would shoulder from her seat.
    • (Can we date this quote?) Rowe
      Around her numberless the rabble flowed, / Shouldering each other, crowding for a view.
  2. (transitive) To carry (something) on one's shoulders.
  3. (transitive, figuratively) To bear a burden, as a financial obligation.
    • 1950, Colin Arthur Cooke, Corporation, Trust and Company: An Essay in Legal History, page 111:
      The shareholders were then shouldering a burden of liability out of proportion to their mere ownership of theoretical fractions of the business.
  4. (transitive) To put (something) on one's shoulders.
    • 2008 June, Men's Health, The World's Simplest Workout, volume 23, page 120:
      Like a power clean, shouldering a sandbag — lifting it from the floor to your shoulder in one explosive movement — requires a coordinated effort from your core, upper body, and legs.
  5. (transitive, figuratively) To accept responsibility for.
    shoulder the blame
  6. (transitive) To place (something) against one's shoulders.
    • 2004, Chris Christian, Larry Sterett, Rick Sapp, The Gun Digest Book of Trap & Skeet Shooting, page 221:
      All three sets are nicely sculptured along the bottom to prevent interference when shouldering your gun with proper shooting form.
  7. (transitive) To form a shape resembling a shoulder.
    • 1977, Roger W. Autor Bolz, Production Processes: The Productivity Handbook, page 12-81:
      allowance at the bottom of blind bores for the chamfered tip of the reamer will obviate additional operations with shouldering or bottoming reamers to completely finish the entire length of a hole.
  8. (intransitive) To move by or as if by using one's shoulders.
    • 2003, Harrison E. Salisbury, The 900 Days: The Siege of Leningrad, page 304:
      He had seen them in the beer halls, shouldering up to the head of the queues
    • 2008, David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas, page 483:
      Mr. Wagstaff strolled with me along the wooded arm of land shouldering northwards from Bethlehem Bay.

Translations [edit]

push (a person or thing) using one's shoulder
carry (something) on one's shoulders
accept responsibility for
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