wriggles

present tense third-person singular of wriggle
1
2
as in crawls
to move slowly with the body close to the ground a worm slowly wriggled across the sidewalk

Synonyms & Similar Words

3
as in worms
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 wriggles That calls for a little extra creativity from its mom — and the movie’s narrator (Emilia Clarke) — who wriggles her mandibles and gets to work embellishing upon what Dahl imagined. Peter Debruge, Variety, 14 Oct. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for wriggles
Verb
  • When Brian and Murtagh report that Dougal offended the Grants and Colum had to promise Ellen’s hand to appease the situation, Lord Lovat squirms.
    Lincee Ray Published, EW.com, 15 Aug. 2025
Verb
  • What to do if the -- if the original guy crawls out of his grave and wants his job back.
    ABC News, ABC News, 26 Oct. 2025
  • When a storm crawls, rainfall piles up over the same towns for days.
    Chris Dolce, CNN Money, 25 Oct. 2025
Verb
  • Spoken shade amongst the group is as plentiful as actual shade is absent in LA’s concrete desert, and the trio tosses it around with the casual dominance of Shohei Ohtani.
    Ben Travers, IndieWire, 30 Oct. 2025
  • The night featured live music, entertainment, fundraising — and yes, a few football tosses with the Kansas City Chiefs quarterback himself.
    Skyler Caruso, PEOPLE, 21 Oct. 2025
Verb
  • For Dimon, bureaucracy is a reflex that creeps into any large institution and shields leaders from reality.
    Eva Roytburg, Fortune, 6 Nov. 2025
  • Meyers will continue being a name to watch as the deadline creeps closer.
    Evan Massey, MSNBC Newsweek, 16 Oct. 2025
Verb
  • Here, the story turns on Andrius a young man who infiltrates a radical neo-Nazi group to find the killer of his LGBT+ activist boyfriend.
    Annika Pham, Variety, 28 Oct. 2025
  • The Savant stars Chastain as an undercover investigator who infiltrates online hate groups and takes them down from the inside.
    Tony Maglio, HollywoodReporter, 23 Oct. 2025
Verb
  • The man fidgets, shifts around in his seat and fixates on Zarutska before pulling out a small knife and striking her multiple times around her neck.
    Charlotte Observer, Charlotte Observer, 8 Sep. 2025
Verb
  • 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
  • In its search for ample sunlight, the species tightly snakes up trees.
    Sophie Hartley, IndyStar, 22 Oct. 2025
Verb
  • Clara, grieving in her own way, sneaks out, gets drunk and high and sees her boyfriend without her mom’s permission.
    Clare Mulroy, USA Today, 24 Oct. 2025
  • Determined, Khaled sneaks into Israel and embarks on a journey to the sea.
    Christian Zilko, IndieWire, 17 Oct. 2025

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Cite this Entry

“Wriggles.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/wriggles. Accessed 9 Nov. 2025.

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