shiver me timbers
Seafarer's shocked oath
Shiver me timbers is a mock pirate exclamation expressing surprise or astonishment: Shiver me timbers, that's a lot of gold!
The phrase originated in nautical fiction rather than actual sailor speech, and today appears almost exclusively as playful pirate parody.
It evokes the image of a ship's wooden frame shuddering under cannon fire or rough seas.
- ahoyMaritime greeting
- buccaneerCaribbean colonial-era pirate
- pirateMaritime thief or bootlegger
- swashbucklerDaring, flamboyant swordsman
- doubloonHistoric Spanish gold currency
scallywag · yo ho ho · cutlass · Treasure Island · sea shanty · high seas · Jolly Roger · skull and crossbones · Blackbeard · blow me down · Captain Kidd · yarr · aye · by thunder · peg leg · land ho · Davy Jones · maritime
- Nautical Idiomsbatten down the hatches, all hands on deck, smooth sailing, three sheets to the wind, in the same boat
- pirate talkahoy, arr, argh, aye, aye aye
- nautical termsahoy, afloat, aye aye, aye-aye, becalmed
- sea shantiesDrunken Sailor, shanties, sea shanties, Rio Grande, South Australia