1
as in to squirm
to make jerky or restless movements
a toddler wriggling in his seat all throughout the church service
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of wriggle
The fox looked at the wriggling thing, uncertain which side was speaking.
—
Hazlitt, 19 Nov. 2025
After several moments, the shark managed to wriggle free and return to the ocean unharmed.
—Landon Mion, FOXNews.com, 6 Nov. 2025
That could lead to soft robots that wriggle through tight spaces with lifelike agility, surgical tools that bend and flex inside the body, or gentle grippers that can manipulate fragile objects without breaking them.
—Elie Dolgin, IEEE Spectrum, 29 Oct. 2025
The camera then switches from the chaos of the puppy, to the kitten—who is sitting in a relaxed position, blinking slowly, and staring almost disdainfully at the wriggling puppy.
—Rachael O'Connor, MSNBC Newsweek, 21 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for wriggle
Hazlitt, 19 Nov. 2025
After several moments, the shark managed to wriggle free and return to the ocean unharmed.
—Landon Mion, FOXNews.com, 6 Nov. 2025
That could lead to soft robots that wriggle through tight spaces with lifelike agility, surgical tools that bend and flex inside the body, or gentle grippers that can manipulate fragile objects without breaking them.
—Elie Dolgin, IEEE Spectrum, 29 Oct. 2025
The camera then switches from the chaos of the puppy, to the kitten—who is sitting in a relaxed position, blinking slowly, and staring almost disdainfully at the wriggling puppy.
—Rachael O'Connor, MSNBC Newsweek, 21 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for wriggle
Recent Examples of Synonyms for wriggle
Verb
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No sound effect makes people squirm quite like grinding teeth.—
William Earl,
Variety,
2 Jan. 2026
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Martin is a tough, no-nonsense, Logan Roy kind of patriarch, inclined to making his children squirm.—
Rafaela Bassili,
Vulture,
13 Nov. 2025
Verb
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Now, Letts has brought Coon back to Broadway with the Main Stem debut of his 1996 play Bug, a skin-crawling portrayal of people on the fringes.—
Juan A. Ramírez,
Vogue,
9 Jan. 2026
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One team member crawled inside and fired paintballs filled with vegetable oil, wildlife organization BEAR League told Fox News Digital on Thursday.—
Bonny Chu,
FOXNews.com,
9 Jan. 2026
Verb
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Callahan spent much of season 4 trying to worm inside Kyle's head and lure him over to the Aryans in order to undercut Mike, but Kyle managed to resist his twisted siren song.—
Randall Colburn,
Entertainment Weekly,
28 Dec. 2025
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Clara ends up moving to the small town and worming her way into everyone’s hearts.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
12 Dec. 2025
Verb
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At 6-foot-4, 255 pounds, Huff at his best has good bend and some twitch to his game.—
Jerry McDonald,
Mercury News,
7 Jan. 2026
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Their usefulness remains an open question At the back of a conference hall at the Mandalay Bay resort in Las Vegas, a humanoid robot twitched through a preprogrammed wave for a crowd of cell phone cameras—a classic scene of high spectacle and unclear utility at CES.—
Eric Sullivan,
Scientific American,
6 Jan. 2026
Verb
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Grow as a creeping vine or along a trellis.—
Miranda Crowell,
Better Homes & Gardens,
8 Jan. 2026
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But then the Broncos’ offensive woes crept back to the forefront.—
Shaun Goodwin,
Idaho Statesman,
8 Jan. 2026
Verb
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Some of my earliest memories are sneaking out of bed to sit at the top of the stairs, desperate to catch a glimpse of the gold and the glamour.—
Michael Schneider,
Variety,
8 Jan. 2026
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If the cover art suggests ’70s private-press albums have snuck into Garm’s rotation, the music seems to confirm it.—
Daniel Bromfield,
Pitchfork,
8 Jan. 2026
Verb
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Someone off camera then tossed him that actual T-shirt.—
Emily Zemler,
Rolling Stone,
8 Jan. 2026
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Failing to get a criminal conviction tossed and again complaining about the conditions at Rikers Island, Weinstein wants to begin negotiations with Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg‘s office ahead of his upcoming trial, his lawyer said during a hearing Thursday.—
Dominic Patten,
Deadline,
8 Jan. 2026
Verb
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Long lines snaked around the terminal Sunday.—
Alexandra Skores,
CNN Money,
3 Nov. 2025
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Two incumbents — west Charlotte’s Thelma Byers-Bailey and Summer Nunn, whose district snakes along the county’s southern border — chose not to run for reelection to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Board of Education.—
Josh Bergeron,
Charlotte Observer,
2 Nov. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Wriggle.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/wriggle. Accessed 11 Jan. 2026.
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