as in twitching
to make jerky or restless movements
the baby wiggled in her sleep
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Recent Examples of wiggling
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
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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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
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With net in hand, the future microbial geochemist dredged up seaweed and mud squirming with snails, crab larvae and other small invertebrates.—
Laura Poppick,
Quanta Magazine,
20 Aug. 2025
Verb
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The sauce can be made ahead and refrigerated for up to one week; rewarm before tossing or brushing on any protein.—
Kimberly Holland,
Southern Living,
5 Oct. 2025
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Several men at the docks made a great show of tossing all the luggage from man to man to man, then piling it neatly on the shore.—
Catherine Lacey,
New Yorker,
5 Oct. 2025
Verb
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He, too, was bowled over by the film's tear-jerking finale.—
Patrick Ryan,
USA Today,
23 Sep. 2025
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With an epic Oscar-winning title song by Streisand and tear-jerking scenes aplenty, this film is a perennial favorite and often referred to in pop culture.—
Alex Apatoff,
PEOPLE,
16 Sep. 2025
Verb
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By twisting the proportions into something sharper and more architectural, the brand signaled both continuity and change in its first women’s outing under Anderson’s watch.—
Maggie Clancy,
Footwear News,
1 Oct. 2025
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The eight-time Pro Bowler had just caught a 10-yard pass when Jets safety Malachi Moore tackled him out of bounds, twisting his leg underneath him.—
Miami Herald,
Miami Herald,
30 Sep. 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 8 Oct. 2025.
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