as in wiggly
making jerky or restless movements
after a while, the little girl got wriggly and had to be taken outside to the church vestibule
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Recent Examples of wriggly
Medieval Christians looked at the very same phenomenon and imagined it as a reflection of divine will, the transformation of a wriggly worm into a flying jewel an earthly reminder of the transfiguration of Jesus to Christ.
—
Literary Hub, 24 Nov. 2025
Literary Hub, 24 Nov. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for wriggly
Adjective
-
Teaching first grade has always involved dealing with wiggly and talkative kids.—
Stacker,
Hartford Courant,
9 May 2026
-
At the edges of the channel, near the walls, Rout and Lim’s team saw rapid fluctuations of molecules — those were the wiggly nucleoporins.—
Yasemin Saplakoglu,
Quanta Magazine,
9 Mar. 2026
Adjective
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With that disclosure out in the open, the rest of the squirmy attendees subtly sank deeper into their seats, accepting Steinem’s orbit as a safe space.—
Savannah Walsh,
Vanity Fair,
22 Apr. 2026
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One of them is a squirmy, intensely relatable dark comedy about the escalating horrors of planning a wedding.—
Hannah Jocelyn,
New Yorker,
3 Apr. 2026
Adjective
-
Even Jason notices the guests are fidgety.—
Rafaela Bassili,
Vulture,
24 Feb. 2026
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The two go toe-to-toe in power and precision, but the Breville’s intuitive assembly is a massive improvement on the Cuisinart’s notoriously fidgety and fussy locking mechanisms.—
Noah Kaufman,
Bon Appetit Magazine,
29 Oct. 2025
Adjective
-
The song crashes together distorted guitar and twitchy electronic production to create what feels akin to having a panic attack at a rave.—
SPIN Staff,
SPIN,
8 May 2026
-
Strictly as an athlete, Perkins is impressive with sideline-to-sideline range, twitchy burst and speed to close.—
Josh Kendall,
New York Times,
25 Apr. 2026
Adjective
-
Last month, despite Orbán’s formidable, long-standing attempts to rig the legal and electoral systems in his favor, Magyar won, in a stunning upset.—
Andrew Marantz,
New Yorker,
9 May 2026
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Gunther was upset that Rhodes was taking his screen time.—
Ryan Gaydos,
FOXNews.com,
9 May 2026
Adjective
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Reformers were worried that putting more money into the hands of local school districts, without oversight to ensure that it was being spent effectively, would lead to its diversion into administration and more generous union contracts rather than hands-on instruction for kids who needed it most.—
Dan Walters,
Mercury News,
14 May 2026
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Yu said that, as China has strengthened its social safety net, people are less worried about having to rely on others.—
Janis Mackey Frayer,
NBC news,
14 May 2026
Cite this Entry
“Wriggly.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/wriggly. Accessed 15 May. 2026.
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