wriggling 1 of 2

noun

as in writhing

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wriggling

2 of 2

verb

present participle of wriggle
1
as in squirming
to make jerky or restless movements a toddler wriggling in his seat all throughout the church service

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in crawling
to move slowly with the body close to the ground a worm slowly wriggled across the sidewalk

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3
as in infiltrating
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

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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 wriggling
Noun
Barnard attended the ceremony with Soprano, Lola’s female stand-in and a convincing lookalike, who accepted the collar with considerable enthusiasm and even more considerable wriggling. — Scott Roxborough, HollywoodReporter, 22 May 2026
Verb
By day the vendors camp out in this park, middle-aged women who stand on the curb with crates of wriggling dogs at their feet. — Literary Hub, 3 Sep. 2026 More than 200 walruses were hauled out on the beach, grunting and groaning, wriggling and jostling for position. — Sarah Kingdom, Forbes.com, 30 Aug. 2026 Wrapped in red, white and blue, and with fine-grain sand wedged between his wriggling toes, Edward didn’t want the night to end. — Danya Gainor, CNN Money, 3 July 2026 For his part, Sherman, a long-time champion of wriggling remedies, cheered the clearance as a step forward for MDT generally. — Beth Mole, ArsTechnica, 17 June 2026 Reaching out hands to help the suffering, Didi and Gogo go down themselves—all mankind a wriggling heap. — Eugenie Brinkema, ARTnews.com, 14 June 2026 The predator can breathe air, survive out of water and walk (more of a wriggling, snake-like motion) on land for at least four days. — Michelle Del Rey, USA Today, 9 June 2026 Piles of wriggling janitor fish filled red barrels along the reservoir — tangible proof that something, at last, was being done. — ABC News, 24 Apr. 2026 And, of course, finding anything wriggling around in your box of cereal or cornmeal is definitely upsetting. — Arricca Elin Sansone, Southern Living, 18 Apr. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for wriggling
  1. writhing
  2. squirming
  3. crawling
  4. infiltrating
  5. twitching
  6. fidgeting
  7. creeping
  8. sneaking
Noun
  • Throughout the writhing and the screaming, Julia’s fortitude wears down a defiant Davina, whose history with Lovat feeds the moment.
    — Hunter Ingram, Variety, 6 Sep. 2025
Definition of writhing
Verb
  • The preview ends with a heart-swelling image of Osbourne smiling and squirming with joy in his throne.
    — Gil Kaufman, Billboard, 24 Sep. 2026
  • The kitten appears to be squirming in his alleged captor’s arms in surveillance footage of the incident, which Innab reviewed after Jabal’s disappearance.
    — Rachel Raposas, PEOPLE, 16 Sep. 2026
Definition of squirming
Verb
  • At the hospital, an insect fell from the girl’s shoe, and a staffer saw a cockroach crawling on her, the district attorney’s office said.
    — Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 14 Oct. 2026
  • Of course, an extra three-quarters of an inch clearance and some elastic straps do not transform a unibody, front-biased crossover into an invincible rock-crawling monster.
    — New Atlas, New Atlas, 9 Oct. 2026
Definition of crawling
Verb
  • The show revolved around Crockett and Tubbs, two undercover detectives infiltrating South Florida’s criminal underworld.
    — Matt Grobar, Deadline, 13 Oct. 2026
  • Plus, even if a company isn’t intentionally using your data to train their models, one of their many agents could always go rogue, infiltrating company data and hoovering up individual users’ conversations with their chatbots.
    — Peter Hall, Scientific American, 13 Oct. 2026
Definition of infiltrating
Noun
  • Casting near banks and using a twitching technique can increase success during the hatch.
    — Dac Collins, Outdoor Life, 14 May 2026
  • During this phase, octopuses display visible twitching along with rapid changes in skin color and texture, per NPR.
    — Samantha Agate, Miami Herald, 27 Mar. 2026
Definition of twitching
Verb
  • Following this concern, 55% of parents said their top concern was their child’s ability to complete multistep tasks such as homework while 45% of parents cited fidgeting.
    — Lina Ruiz, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 17 Aug. 2026
  • The current boom is driven by Gen Z’s openness about mental health, social-commerce virality on TikTok and Etsy, and a broader nervous-system regulation movement that treats fidgeting as a legitimate coping tool rather than a bad habit.
    — Samantha Agate, Charlotte Observer, 17 Aug. 2026
Definition of fidgeting
Verb
  • Finally, while work is underway to build a formal framework for economic espionage, Congress must prevent any creeping erosion of the existing norm through the potentially corrupt dissemination of intelligence to favored companies.
    — DAVID S. COHEN, Foreign Affairs, 8 Oct. 2026
  • Yep, there are more and more signs creeping in by the election cycle.
    — Joe Kinsey OutKick, FOXNews.com, 8 Oct. 2026
Definition of creeping
Verb
  • Kids made good accomplices, tasked with sneaking off on a hunt for the bill.
    — Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 16 Oct. 2026
  • At 15, Mariana de Miguel was already sneaking into Mexico City’s nightlife with a fake ID, saving money to see the bands that shaped her imagination.
    — Isabela Raygoza, Billboard, 9 Oct. 2026
Definition of sneaking

Browse Nearby Words

wriggles
wriggling
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Cite this Entry

“Wriggling.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/wriggling. Accessed 21 Oct. 2026.

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