skewer
/ˈskjuːə
/noun
A long piece of wood or metal used for holding pieces of food, typically meat, together during cooking: thread the meat on to large skewers and grill over a gentle heat...
- Peppers and tomatoes can be barbecued on the skewers between meat pieces.
- It melts well, and is sometimes grilled on skewers with pieces of vegetable.
- Metal skewers should be used for kebabs as wood can catch light, another benefit of metal is that it aids cooking.
verb [with object]
1Fasten together or pierce with a pin or skewer: (as adjective skewered) skewered meat and fish...
- Kris snorted quite audibly, then skewered the meat on a stick.
- She passed him a stick on which bite-sized chunks of meat had been skewered.
- Wiley found a couple of long thin sticks to skewer the fish.
1.1 informal Subject to sharp criticism or critical analysis: politicians are used to being skewered...
- It certainly didn't deserve the critical skewering it received, nor should it have failed as miserably as it did, but it's hardly a film to get excited about.
- The game was absolutely skewered by the critics, although curiously it's hard to find exactly what was thought to be objectionable.
- The critics have skewered him, his wife is divorcing him, and the studio wants to fire him.
Origin
Late Middle English: of unknown origin.
shiver from Middle English:
The Middle English spelling of this word was chivere, which is perhaps an alteration of dialect chavele ‘to chatter’, from Old English ceafl ‘jaw’, from the teeth chattering due to the cold. The sense meaning ‘to break’ or ‘small piece’ is from a Germanic root with the base idea of ‘slit, splinter. Skewer (late 17th century) may be related.