shoulder

Syllables: shoul·derUK/ˈʃəʊldə//ˈʃoʊldɚ/

shoulder noun: the part of the human torso forming a relatively horizontal surface running away from the neck.

Image: Conrad 7, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

shoulder (plural shoulders)

The part of the human torso forming a relatively horizontal surface running away from the neck.
- The parrot was sitting on Steve's shoulder.
- But then I had the flintlock by me for protection. ¶ There were giants in the days when that gun was made; for surely no modern mortal could have held that mass of metal steady to his shoulder. The linen-press and a chest on the top of it formed, however, a very good gun-carriage; and, thus...1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], “The First Gun”, in The Amateur Poacher, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], →OCLC, page 4
The joint between the arm and the torso, sometimes including the surrounding muscles, tendons, and ligaments.
A cut of meat comprising the upper joint of the foreleg and the surrounding muscle.
- In the firſt Courſe there was a Shoulder of Mutton, cut into an Æquilateral Triangle, a Piece of Beef into a Rhomboides, and a Pudding into a Cycloid.1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], “The Humours and Dispositions of the Laputians Described. […]”, in Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume II, London...
The portion of a garment where the shoulder is clothed.
Anything forming a shape resembling a human shoulder.
A usually unsealed strip of land bordering a road, where vehicles can drive or park in an emergency.
- He stopped the car on the shoulder of the highway to change the flat tire.
- The shoulders are graded and the verges cleared well back to lessen the chances of hitting stray stock.2000, Bob Foster, Birdum or Bust!, Henley Beach, SA: Seaview Press, page 129
The portion of a hill or mountain just below the peak.
- […]the north-western shoulder of the mountain[…]1818 July 25, Jedediah Cleishbotham [pseudonym; Walter Scott], chapter III, in Tales of My Landlord, Second Series, […] (The Heart of Mid-Lothian), volume II, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and...
A lateral protrusion of a hill or mountain.
- I certainly was not prepared for the cosy nestling valleys that snuggled against the shoulders of the hills; a land where the graystone cottages and farmsteads still prevailed, but where they had taken on something of the softness of their kind in Gloucester and the Cotswolds, and seemed almost...1949 January and February, F. G. Roe, “I Saw Three Englands–1”, in Railway Magazine, page 12
The angle of a bastion included between the face and flank.
An abrupt projection which forms an abutment on an object, or limits motion, etc., such as the projection around a tenon at the end of a piece of timber.
- Having thus fully described my improved winnowing machine, what I claim therein as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent is in the forming of a series of shoulders one above another on the inclined board, forming the bottom of the hopper,...1847, editorial staff, “Winnowing Machines”, in Scientific American, series 1, Volume 3, Issue 9, page 68
The flat portion of type that is below the bevelled portion that joins up with the face.
The rounded portion of a stringed instrument where the neck joins the body.

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The rounded portion of a bottle where the neck meets the body.
The angled section between the neck and the main body of a cartridge.
(figuratively) That which supports or sustains; support.
- passage[…]in thy ſhoulder do I builde my Seate;c. 1591–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard...
The part of a key between the cuts and the bow.
The part of a wave that has not yet broken.
- You see you're going to make it into the safety of the shoulder. It feels like the happiest day of your life.1966, Bruce Brown, director, The Endless Summer
Synonyms:

hook
A season or a time of day when there is relatively little air traffic.
- For a round-trip journey starting from the UK during the shoulder period (1 April-30 June) […]1976, Trade and Industry, volume 25, page 270
- the determination of noise-induced disturbances during the shoulder hours and their consequences for the consecutive sleep period2003, Proceedings of the 8th International Congress on Noise as a Public Health Problem (Rotterdam, the Netherlands, 29 June-3 July 2003), page 184

Verb

shoulder (third-person singular simple present shoulders, present participle shouldering, simple past and past participle shouldered)

(transitive) To push (a person or thing) using one's shoulder.
- […]As they the earth would ſhoulder from her ſeat,[…]1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto XI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 21, page 160
- Around her numberless the rabble flowed, / Shouldering each other, crowding for a view.1714, Nicholas Rowe, The Tragedy of Jane Shore
(broadly, transitive) To bully, manipulate or pull rank on (somebody).
- He shouldered me out of my own band.
(transitive) To put (something) on one's shoulders.
- Early in the morning they shouldered light packs, took their rifles, crossed the big draw, and entered the timber where was the deadfall.1922, A. M. Chisholm, A Thousand a Plate
- Like a power clean, shouldering a sandbag — lifting it from the floor to your shoulder in one explosive movement — requires a coordinated effort from your core, upper body, and legs.2008 June, Men's Health, The World's Simplest Workout, volume 23, number 5, page 120
(transitive) To place (something) against one's shoulders.
- All three sets are nicely sculptured along the bottom to prevent interference when shouldering your gun with proper shooting form.2004, Chris Christian, Larry Sterett, Rick Sapp, The Gun Digest Book of Trap & Skeet Shooting, page 221
(figuratively, transitive) To bear a burden, as a financial obligation.
- The shareholders were then shouldering a burden of liability out of proportion to their mere ownership of theoretical fractions of the business.1950, Colin Arthur Cooke, Corporation, Trust and Company: An Essay in Legal History, page 111
(figuratively, transitive) To accept responsibility for.
- shoulder the blame
- The former president has been forced to shoulder some of the blame for poor performances in key races, including in Pennsylvania, where his handpicked Republican candidate, Mehmet Oz, lost to Democrat John Fetterman in a contest that allowed Democrats to keep the Senate majority.2022 November 15, Hugo Lowell, “Trump to barrel ahead with campaign reveal despite Republican pushback”, in The Guardian
(transitive) To form a shape resembling a shoulder.
- allowance at the bottom of blind bores for the chamfered tip of the reamer will obviate additional operations with shouldering or bottoming reamers to completely finish the entire length of a hole.1977, Roger W. Autor Bolz, Production Processes: The Productivity Handbook, page 12-81
(intransitive) To move by or as if by using one's shoulders.
- The sullen murmur of the bees shouldering their way through the long unmown grass, or circling with monotonous insistence round the dusty gilt horns of the straggling woodbine, seemed to make the stillness more oppressive.1891, Oscar Wilde, chapter I, in The Picture of Dorian Gray, London; New York, N.Y.: Ward Lock & Co., →OCLC, page 2
- […]a yoke of the great sulky white bullocks […] came shouldering along together;1894 May, Rudyard Kipling, “Servants of the Queen”, in The Jungle Book, London; New York, N.Y.: Macmillan and Co., published June 1894, →OCLC, page 190
(transitive) To round and slightly raise the top edges of slate shingles so that they form a tighter fit at the lower edge and can be swung aside to expose the nail.
(intransitive) To slope downwards from the crest and whitewater portion of a wave.
(archaic, slang, transitive) Of a servant: to embezzle money from (the employer).

shoulder meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

shoulder in Hindi

joint between arm and torso: कंधा kandhā, शाना śānā

shoulder in Tamil

joint between arm and torso: புயம் puyam, தோள் tōḷ

shoulder in Marathi

joint between arm and torso: खांदा khāndā

shoulder in Urdu

joint between arm and torso: کَنْدھا kandhā, شانَہ śāna

More languagesFewer languages

shoulder in Bengali: কাঁধ kãdh
shoulder in Telugu: భుజం bhujaṁ, జబ్బ jabba
shoulder in Malayalam: തോള് tōḷŭ
shoulder in Kannada: ಭುಜ bhuja
shoulder in Punjabi: ਮੋਢਾ moḍhā, موڈھا moḍhā, ਕੰਧਾ kandhā, ਕੰਨ੍ਹਾ kannhā
shoulder in Gujarati: ખભો khabho, સ્કંધ skandh, કંધ kandh
shoulder in Odia: ଖୁଆ khuā
shoulder in Sanskrit: अंस aṃsa, स्कन्ध skandha, स्कन्द skanda
shoulder in Sinhala: උරහිස urahisa, කර kara
shoulder in Assamese: কান্ধ kandho, কান kan
shoulder in Nepali: काँध kā̃dh
shoulder in Pashto: اوږه oẓá, ولى wᶕlay
shoulder in Tagalog: balikat
shoulder in Arabic: كَتِف katif, كِتْف kitf, مَنْكِب mankib
shoulder in Malay: bahu, pundak
shoulder in Indonesian: bahu, pundak
shoulder in Thai: ไหล่ lài, บ่า bàa, แบก bɛ̀ɛk
shoulder in Vietnamese: vai, vác
shoulder in Myanmar: ပခုံး pa.hkum:

Examples of shoulder in a sentence

But then I had the flintlock by me for protection. ¶ There were giants in the days when that gun was made; for surely no modern mortal could have held that mass of metal steady to his shoulder.1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], “The First Gun”, in The Amateur Poacher, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], →OCLC, page 4:
In turn he smiled and also shrugged a shoulder.1910, Emerson Hough, “A Lady in Company”, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company...
And I shouldered that because if Meg wasn’t with me, then her dad would still be her dad.2022 December 8, Caroline Davies, quoting Prince Harry, “Prince Harry: royals didn’t understand risk to Meghan of racial attacks”, in The...
He had seen them in the beer halls, shouldering up to the head of the queues2003, Harrison E. Salisbury, The 900 Days: The Siege of Leningrad, page 304:

All 40 example sentences with shoulder

Synonyms of shoulder

hook

Forms of shoulder

Noun
plural	shoulders
alternative form (dialectal)	shouder
Verb
third-person singular present	shoulders
present participle	shouldering
past participle	shouldered
past	shouldered

Past tense of shoulder: shouldered

Plural of shoulder: shoulders

Origin of shoulder

From Middle English schuldre, sholder, shulder, schulder, from Old English sċuldra, sċuldor (“shoulder”), from Proto-West Germanic *skuldru (“shoulder”), of uncertain origin. Perhaps related to Proto-Germanic *skelduz (“shield”), see shield. Cognate with Old Frisian skuldere (“shoulder”) (West Frisian skouder (“shoulder”)), Middle Low German scholder (“shoulder”), Low German Schuller, Schulder (“shoulder”), Dutch schouder (“shoulder”), German Schulter (“shoulder”).

Words formed from shoulder

Phrases with shoulder

38 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with shoulder

Questions about shoulder

What does shoulder mean?: Shoulder means the part of the human torso forming a relatively horizontal surface running away from the neck.
What is shoulder in Hindi?: Shoulder in Hindi is कंधा (kandhā), शाना (śānā). See Shoulder meaning in Hindi.
How do you use shoulder in a sentence?: But then I had the flintlock by me for protection. ¶ There were giants in the days when that gun was made; for surely no modern mortal could have held that mass of metal steady to his shoulder.
What part of speech is shoulder?: Shoulder can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce shoulder?: Shoulder is pronounced /ˈʃəʊldə/ (UK).
What is the plural of shoulder?: The plural of shoulder is shoulders.

Words near shoulder in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: shoulder (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-shoulder.ogg.

Cite this entry: “shoulder.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/shoulder. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.