knee-trembling

knee-trembling (comparative more knee-trembling, superlative most knee-trembling)

1. Filled with strong emotion
   1. Terrified.
      • 1991, Gene Lazuta, Bleeder, →ISBN, page 71:

        A terrible, knee-trembling wash of terror ran down his spine as he lifted the gun and pressed its cold metal to his chest.

      • 2001, Colin Evans, Great Feuds in History: Ten of the Liveliest Disputes Ever, →ISBN:

        An example: say Lyndon Baines Johnson had gotten wind that he was being trashed by some Capitol Hill minnow, chances are a single phone call from the Oval Office would have been enough to induce a knee-trembling silence.

      • 2006, Dan Parry, Blackbeard: The Real Pirate of the Caribbean, →ISBN, page 10:

        One ship's captain remembered Blackbeard as 'a tall, spare man' - an unembroidered eye-witness description that supports many knee-trembling references to a giant of a man, a devil in disguise.

      • 2017, Liz Flaherty, The Happiness Pact, →ISBN:

        Her knee-trembling, heart-pounding fear of thunderstorms was no match for her fascination with the light show offered by the sky.

   2. Thrilled.
      • 1994, Susan Connell, Rings on Her Fingers, →ISBN, page 169:

        "I just want to look at you," he said, his blatant stare filling her with knee-trembling excitement.

      • 2006, Isolde Pullum, Brazen Horse, →ISBN, page 68:

        The first said Clare Philips and Magpie, the second, to my knee-trembling delight, said Adam Bray and Custar and the third one we came to said Paula Wilkie and Jazz, so we went in.

   3. Overwhelmed.
      • 1979, Collin Wilcox, Power Plays, →ISBN, page 202:

        Hearing the familiar voice, I felt a sudden rush of stomach-empty, knee-trembling relief.

      • 2007, Kathryn Deans, Glow: Troll's Tale 2: The Continuation of a Troll's Tale, →ISBN:

        Knee-trembling exhaustion. With each step he'd felt like he was fighting gravity just to stay upright and he'd developed a niggling pain in his lower back, the first pain he had experienced in all his very long years.

      • 2009, Robert Kershaw, Tank Men, →ISBN:

        The precursor to advancing across unknown ground was knee-trembling agitation: this may be for the last time.

2. Causing strong emotion; thrilling.
   1. Very frightening.
      • 1981, Tom Ramsey, 25 Great Australian Golf Courses and how to Play Them, page 161:

        The putting surface, however, has three levels and it can offer a knee-trembling experience where the danger of a three-putt is acute.

      • 2001, Henry Stedman, Trekking in the Dolomites, →ISBN, page 138:

        Where, the purists cry, are the heart-racing climbs and knee-trembling descents for which the Dolomites is justly famed?

   2. Causing a feeling of rapture.
      • 1996, Adrienne Simpson, Opera's farthest frontier, →ISBN:

        Standing near the soloists during a finale was a knee-trembling experience.

      • 2001, Geoffrey Giuliano, Lennon in America: 1971-1980, Based in Part on the Lost Lennon Diaries, →ISBN:

        Things like the consciousness-expanding, life-altering, knee-trembling mind and music of John Winston Ono Lennon.

      • 2014, Cathy Bramley, Conditional Love, →ISBN, page 128:

        Marc flashed me one of his knee-trembling smiles and a minute later we pulled up outside a quaint little pub.

      • 2016, Gwyn Cready, A Novel Seduction, →ISBN:

        It was one thing to accept Axel's friendship, even a friendship with some knee-trembling benefits.

   3. Impressive.
      • 2004, Investors Chronicle, page 65:

        If the trust's assets grow by 5 per cent each year, the redemption yield for capital shareholders will be a knee-trembling 75.9 per cent a year.

      • 2013, Philip Ball, Curiosity: How Science Became Interested in Everything, →ISBN, page vii:

        Not only is it now acceptable to be curious — and this book is largely about how that came to be the case — but it is easier than ever, because of the knee-trembling quantity of information we have at our fingertips.

      • 2014, Jane Costello, The Time of Our Lives, →ISBN, page 55:

        A vast foyer leads to a pool area of knee-trembling tranquillity, an oasis of polished tiles and palm trees arranged in a swaying phalanx around an elegant infinity pool.

3. Involving a knee-trembler.
   • 2008, Ethan Greenhart, Can I Recycle My Granny?: And 39 Other Eco-Dilemmas, page 167:

     That is definitely better than having them all walking the streets, dropping litter, binge-drinking in pubs, defecating in alleyways, having knee-trembling encounters in skips that frequently result in pregnancy, and so on.

   • 2015, Nick Robinson, Election Notebook:

     Suggestions of a knee-trembling encounter on a snooker table in Bird's gentlemen's club lend the story a Palmerstonesque flavour – legend has it that the Victorian prime minister and old rascal died while potting the balls on the green baize with his maid.