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Glite Dictionary
to give someone chills

to give someone chills

12 5.8
To cause a sudden feeling of fear or strong excitement that makes someone shiver
  • phrasal verb
translation icon : dar escalofríos a alguien
  • Gives me the chills just to think about it.
  • just gave me chills
  • actually gave me chills
  • gives chills down my spine

Examples

  • Wow, this gives me the chills even talking about this.

    Blog text (1)

  • His touch gives me the chills.

    Fiction book (1993)

  • This entire county gives me the chills.

    Witchouse II: Blood Coven (2000)

  • That, like, totally gave me the chills.

    Jawbreaker (1999)

  • That guy is just... it gives you chills when you watch that guy.

    Pumping Iron (1977)

  • That gives me chills down my spine.

    Kidnapped (2021)

  • Oh wow, this post gave me chills and made me tear up!

    Blog text (4)

  • Paul, your second act monologue actually gave me the chills.

    Ed Wood (1994)

  • I covered the Dylan concert, which gave me chills.

    Annie Hall (1977)

  • The story was so frightening that it gave me chills.

Synonyms

to excite
vsto give someone chills
331 2.7

To make someone feel very happy, interested, or eager

is specifically about sudden fear, awe, or physical tremor
to stir
vsto give someone chills
131 3.7

To make someone feel a strong emotion

is more likely to produce a sudden physical sensation such as a body tremor
to tingle
vsto give someone chills
43 3.5

To have a small prickly feeling on the skin often from excitement or cold

is stronger and causes obvious body tremors rather than faint prickles
to thrill
vsto give someone chills
23 2.6

To shiver with sudden excitement or fear

focuses more on emotional effect than on physical tremor
to chill to the bone
vsto give someone chills
  • Informal
3 6.3

To make someone feel very cold or deeply frightened

is similar but usually milder and quicker in onset
to send chills down someone's spine
vsto give someone chills
  • Informal
1 5.9

Make someone feel a sudden strong fear or excitement

is similar but includes milder or more general sudden reactions
to send shivers down someone's spine
vsto give someone chills
  • Informal
1 6.0

Cause someone to feel a sudden strong fear or excitement

is the same idea but can include awe as well as fear
shiver down someone's spine
vsto give someone chills
  • Informal
1 5.9

A sudden feeling of fear or excitement that moves along your back

is broader, covering any sudden fear, excitement, or awe
to set pulses racing
vsto give someone chills
  • Informal
1 6.0

To make someone feel very excited, often suddenly

is more about a sudden bodily thrill tied to fear or awe
to stir someone's blood
vsto give someone chills
6.0

To make someone feel strong excitement or deep emotion

is usually quicker and tied to a brief physical reaction

Antonyms

to reassure
163 3.4

To make someone feel less worried and more confident

to soothe
63 3.4

To make someone feel calmer or reduce their pain

How Intense

to terrify
148 3.2
to give someone chills
12 5.8
to spook
97 4.8
to unsettle
7 4.9

Surface Forms

give someone chills infinitive
gave someone chills past
given someone chills past participle
giving someone chills present participle
gives someone chills third person singular

Morphology

give + someone + chill

The phrase is directly compositional: 'give' (to produce or cause) plus 'chills' (a shiver of fear/excitement) yields 'cause someone to feel chills', so a learner who knows the constituents can derive the meaning. The syntactic pattern 'give someone [noun]' is common cross-linguistically (e.g. Spanish 'dar escalofríos a alguien'), which further supports immediate comprehension at B1.

Etymology

The idiom give someone chills comes from the simple body reaction to cold or fear: a sudden cold or scary moment makes you shiver and get goosebumps, so something that gives you chills produces that same feeling. So it now means 'to cause someone to feel a sudden shiver from fear, excitement, or awe'.