as in twitching
to make jerky or restless movements
the baby wiggled in her sleep
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Recent Examples of wiggling
That led to him extending both hands and wiggling them in a wave-type motion.
—
Jesse Newell, New York Times, 17 Oct. 2025
The dogs couldn't stand still, wiggling their bodies enthusiastically.
—Liz O'Connell, MSNBC Newsweek, 24 Sep. 2025
To train the decoder, each person would imagine a series of different movements (like moving their whole right arm or wiggling their left thumb) while the researchers looked at the data coming from the electrodes and tried to find the most obvious and reliable signal.
—Eliza Strickland, IEEE Spectrum, 21 Feb. 2017
Jesse Newell, New York Times, 17 Oct. 2025
The dogs couldn't stand still, wiggling their bodies enthusiastically.
—Liz O'Connell, MSNBC Newsweek, 24 Sep. 2025
To train the decoder, each person would imagine a series of different movements (like moving their whole right arm or wiggling their left thumb) while the researchers looked at the data coming from the electrodes and tried to find the most obvious and reliable signal.
—Eliza Strickland, IEEE Spectrum, 21 Feb. 2017
Recent Examples of Synonyms for wiggling
Verb
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Any dairy farmer can tell you that biting flies are a pestilent scourge for cattle herds, which is why one so often sees cows throwing their heads, stamping their feet, flicking their tails, and twitching their skin—desperately trying to shake off the nasty creatures.—
ArsTechnica,
ArsTechnica,
18 Sep. 2025
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Prior to the 2024 incident, Mangione reportedly shared information on Reddit about a number of health issues, including struggles with back pain, brain fog, and twitching leg muscles.—
Olivia-Anne Cleary,
Time,
16 Sep. 2025
Verb
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Applause intermingled with tears as the families of the Camp Mystic campers and counselors looked on, many with small children fidgeting in their Sunday-best attire behind the governor.—
Rebekah Riess,
CNN Money,
5 Sep. 2025
Verb
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What happens next in the final minutes of The Vanishing will leave viewers squirming in their seats and hoping against hope for our vulnerable leading man.—
Steven Thrash,
Entertainment Weekly,
19 Oct. 2025
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Still, Sabbath sounded amazing, the band’s distinctive vibe of limitless cosmic encumbrance, of Man squirming under the thumb of Fate, God, madness—the essential heavy-metal vision—somehow magnified by the venerable wobbliness of its playing.—
James Parker,
The Atlantic,
12 Sep. 2025
Verb
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Job prospects are so bleak that Gen Z is going straight from tossing their graduation caps to years of doom with zero luck.—
Emma Burleigh,
Fortune,
28 Oct. 2025
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Now the Longs, through Palmer Square and Marquee Development, the real estate arm of the Ricketts family, owners of the Chicago Cubs, are tossing another $1 billion into the mix in three phases.—
Kansas City Star,
Kansas City Star,
27 Oct. 2025
Verb
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Having documented much of her daughter’s health battle on social media, Atkinson shared the footage of her tear-jerking wish on TikTok (@kayatkin).—
Alyce Collins,
MSNBC Newsweek,
25 Oct. 2025
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Sounds like the plot of a tear-jerking movie, no?—
David Oliver,
USA Today,
7 Oct. 2025
Verb
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The research team pointed out that mapping the material’s performance onto an Ashby chart highlights twisting metamaterials as a promising class of mechanically adaptive, crashworthy materials for advanced protection systems in automotive, rail, aerospace, and defense applications.—
Prabhat Ranjan Mishra,
Interesting Engineering,
25 Oct. 2025
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Dueling water coaster The water coaster teased for Magic Mountain’s Hurricane Harbor water park would feature a side-by-side inner tube race through twisting drops and high-speed turns.—
Brady MacDonald,
Oc Register,
22 Oct. 2025
Verb
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But in private, Arthur advises her to exercise a little more discretion in her, um, fiddling.—
Keith Phipps,
Vulture,
25 Sep. 2025
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The party that fails this test will be remembered — if at all — as the one fiddling while Rome was automated.—
Matt K. Lewis,
Twin Cities,
19 Aug. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Wiggling.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/wiggling. Accessed 28 Oct. 2025.
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