Dictionary

shrithe en · VERB

Pronunciation

• /ʃɹaɪð/ (General-American, Received-Pronunciation)
• (Southern-England) audio

Etymology

Coined by English writer and translator Kevin Crossley-Holland (born 1941): a semi-learned borrowing from Old English sċrīþan (“to go; take one's way to a place; go about; wander”), from Proto-West Germanic *skrīþan, from Proto-Germanic *skrīþaną (“to walk, go, slither, crawl”). Cognate with Dutch schrijden (“to stride”), German schreiten (“to stride, step, proceed”), Icelandic skríða (“to slither, creep, crawl”). As shrithe was a class I strong verb in Old English, were it inherited, the expected forms would be: simple past: *shrothe, and past-participle: *shrithen. It is important to note, however, that Crossley-Holland did not use these forms and therefore has ahistorically treated shrithe as weak verb.

Meanings

1. (intransitive, poetic) To move; to proceed; to creep, roam, wander.
   • While the winged creature coiled himself up, / the friend and lord of men stood unflinching / by his shield; Beowulf waited ready armed. / Then, fiery and twisted, the dragon swiftly / shrithed towards its fate. 1999, “Beowulf”, in Richard [William] Barber, editor, Myths & Legends of the British Isles, Woodbridge, Suffolk; Rochester, N.Y.: Boydell Press, →ISBN, page 243:
   • An adder writhes out of the bush, I can see the diamonds on its back; it shrithes across the sandy soil, and bites the right foot of one of the knights. 2003, Kevin Crossley-Holland, “The Most Bitter Day”, in King of the Middle March (Arthur; 3), London: Orion Children's Books, →ISBN; 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Arthur A. Levine Books, Scholastic Inc., October 2004, →ISBN, page 349:
   • Some secret curse comes shrithing / To the once blithe hall, sits on the soul / Where a treasure burns. 2017, “[The Exeter Book] The Rhyming Poem”, in Craig Williamson, transl., The Complete Old English Poems, Philadelphia, P.A.: University of Pennsylvania Press, →ISBN, page 503, lines 55–57:
   • But the cruel monster constantly terrified / young and old, the dark death-shadow / lurked in ambush; he prowled the misty moors / at the dead of night; men do not know / where such hell-whisperers shrithe in their wanderings. 1999, Kevin Crossley-Holland, edited by Heather O'Donoghue, Beowulf (Oxford World's Classics), Oxford: Oxford University Press, →ISBN:
   • He realized the monster meant to attack Heorot after the blue hour, when black night has settled over all— when shadowy shapes come shrithing dark beneath the clouds. 1973, James Edwin Miller, England in Literature, →ISBN, page 14:
   • Grendel to His Mother [by Kirsten Dabrowski] Oh momma, momma, I'm just not a winner, / 'Cause I got roughed up on my way to get dinner. / I shrithed to the Heorot to get human yummies / To tickle our palates and fill up our tummies. 1993, Betty Bonham Lies, “Writing about Literature through Poetry”, in The Poet’s Pen: Writing Poetry with Middle and High School Students, Portsmouth, N.H.: Teacher Ideas Press, Greenwood Publishing Group, →ISBN, page 159:
   • I creep, I shrithe / on my devil's claws, / and sting whatever I touch. 2009, Kevin Crossley-Holland, “Switzerland”, in The Hidden Roads: A Memoir of Childhood, London: Quercus, →ISBN:

Forms

Relateds

scrape · scree · scrap

Translations (4)

pl skierować się (to move; to make one's way (toward)) · pl poruszyć się (to move; to make one's way (toward)) · pl poruszać się (to move; to make one's way (toward)) · pl kierować się (to move; to make one's way (toward))

wikipedia: Poetry Foundation