wriggle

1
as in to squirm
to make jerky or restless movements a toddler wriggling in his seat all throughout the church service

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

2
as in to crawl
to move slowly with the body close to the ground a worm slowly wriggled across the sidewalk

Synonyms & Similar Words

3
as in to worm
to introduce in a gradual, secret, or clever way within a month of his arrival, this social upstart had wriggled himself into the family's good graces

Synonyms & Similar Words

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of wriggle On an island in the middle of the Florida Everglades, Taylor Stanberry — mostly nocturnal in the summer catching Burmese pythons — uncovered a wriggling nest of 30 baby pythons. Miami Herald, 15 Aug. 2025 Elanga looked very decent against Atletico, wriggling down the right with blistering pace. George Caulkin, New York Times, 10 Aug. 2025 But the cat wriggled its head through a handle and squeezed through. Nell Salzman, Chicago Tribune, 29 July 2025 With each project like Rossetti's that is wriggled from the infrastructure, the foundation becomes increasingly unstable. Alexis Kayser, MSNBC Newsweek, 12 June 2025 See All Example Sentences for wriggle
Recent Examples of Synonyms for wriggle
Verb
  • 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
  • But the Rockies, as is their wont, made the Padres squirm, belting 14 hits, including a solo home run by Mickey Moniak in the ninth off Robert Suarez.
    Patrick Saunders, Denver Post, 7 Sep. 2025
Verb
  • And to get there, visitors will have to make their way through scare zones brimming with crawling monsters and roaring chainsaws.
    Charlotte Observer, Charlotte Observer, 11 Sep. 2025
  • Insects crawled through clinical areas, and staff food was stored alongside medical supplies.
    Walter Pavlo, Forbes.com, 10 Sep. 2025
Verb
  • But Donaggio prefers to worm his way into your brain — and into the deepest pit of fears in your stomach.
    David Ehrlich, IndieWire, 20 Aug. 2025
  • Last month, hackers wormed their way into Tea and accessed sensitive user data; 70,000 user images and more than 1 million private messages reportedly were leaked, including communications about abortions, users’ driver’s-license photos, and phone numbers that had been shared in private messages.
    Albert Fox Cahn, The Atlantic, 11 Aug. 2025
Verb
  • My hand twitched toward the phone, muscle memory stronger than willpower.
    Maggie Downs, Oc Register, 9 Sep. 2025
  • Jones’ raw traits have always been jaw-dropping — a 6-foot-6 defensive end who can combine an edge rusher’s twitch with an interior lineman’s power.
    Luca Evans, Denver Post, 30 Aug. 2025
Verb
  • The massive cuts to the program remain to be seen as prices continue to creep ever higher for beneficiaries.
    Suzanne Blake, MSNBC Newsweek, 16 Sep. 2025
  • Coachella hasn’t sold out since 2023, despite its release dates creeping earlier in the calendar each year.
    Arielle Gordon, Pitchfork, 16 Sep. 2025
Verb
  • Aloe vera sneaks in lightweight hydration, and wheat protein helps strengthen to keep breakage at bay.
    Christa Joanna Lee, Allure, 10 Sep. 2025
  • Read about a man who has snuck into prestigious events for nearly a decade.
    Alexandra Banner, CNN Money, 10 Sep. 2025
Verb
  • One night earlier, Cecconi tossed eight scoreless innings and carried a no-hitter through seven.
    Zack Meisel, New York Times, 10 Sep. 2025
  • Move the ingredients to the hole and toss to cover them with the sauce.
    Linda Gassenheimer, Boston Herald, 10 Sep. 2025
Verb
  • Lines of hundreds of guests snaked around the inside of the department store (which takes up an entire city block in Manhattan), with onlookers snapping photos quizzically.
    Anika Reed, USA Today, 13 Sep. 2025
  • The Wild Flint The Flint snakes down Georgia, a safe distance from I-85 and I-75, before joining the Chattahoochee River in Lake Seminole and cutting across the Florida Panhandle as the Apalachicola River.
    David Hanson, Southern Living, 13 Sep. 2025

Browse Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Wriggle.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/wriggle. Accessed 17 Sep. 2025.

More from Merriam-Webster on wriggle

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!