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Glite Dictionary
🧗 To climb awkwardly 🏒 Street hockey
to shinny

to shinny

1 9.3
To climb something by holding on with your hands and legs
  • verb
  • /ˈʃɪni/
  • Informal
translation icon : subir
  • Larissa leaped upward without even stopping to think, grabbed onto the sturdy beam from which the sign hung, and shinnied up until she was sitting on it.
  • shinny up the tree
  • shinny up a rope
  • shinny back

Examples

  • I shinnied up the drainpipe and along the gutter until I reached Lavie's window.

    Fiction book (2001)

  • As a child, I loved to shinny up the maple tree in my backyard to get a better view of the neighborhood.

  • "Just remember, we may have to shinny back up the cables in a hurry when that ship gets here.

    Fiction book (1998)

  • "I used to shinny up the porch roof and in a window."

    The Adventures of Mark Twain (1944)

  • And I was going to have to shinny up a rope and try to break into that alien spacecraft.

    Fiction book (1998)

  • Worf decided to move faster, trying to shinny up the rod before it broke loose.

    Fiction book (1992)

  • He tried to go up and get it, shinnying up a drain pipe.

    Fiction book (2002)

  • He shinnied up a pecan tree close to the wall, bent back limbs, and peered across a lawn greener than any pasture he'd ever seen.

    Fiction book (1992)

  • He had to shinny down the tall pole to retrieve his hat that had blown away.

  • The climber decided to shinny up the rocky outcrop to get a closer look at the view.

Synonyms

to struggle
vsto shinny
170 3.0

To move or climb with great difficulty, often using your hands

is awkward by grasping with limbs rather than just showing difficulty
to climb up
vsto shinny
127 1.0

To move up using hands and feet, often with effort

is about awkward grasping rather than general upward movement
to scramble
vsto shinny
118 3.2

Climb quickly using your hands and feet on steep or rough ground

is awkward but implies slower, more deliberate grasping
to clamber
vsto shinny
19 5.6

To climb awkwardly using hands and feet

is awkward and focuses on grasping with arms and legs
to shin
vsto shinny
  • UK
7.7

To climb up or down something using your hands and shins for support

is similar but emphasizes grasping with arms and legs instead

Antonyms

to descend
150 2.7

Move from a higher to a lower place

How Difficult

to clamber
19 5.6
to shinny
  • Informal
1 9.3
to scramble
118 3.2
to climb
∞ 1.0

Surface Forms

shinny infinitive
shinny infinitive
shinnyed past
shinnyed past participle
shinnying present participle

Morphology

shinny = shin (semi-transparent) = shin + y

The word is plausibly built from 'shin' plus a verbal suffix, but the exact sense of climbing awkwardly is somewhat specialized.

Etymology

Shinny The verb comes from the body part shin 'lower leg', because people would press their shins against a tree or pole to help them climb. So shinny means to climb up awkwardly by holding on with your arms and legs.