jiggle

American  

[jig-uhl] / ˈdʒɪg əl /

verb (used with or without object)

jiggled, jiggling

1. to move up and down or to and fro with short, quick jerks.

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noun

1. a jiggling movement.

jiggle British  

/ ˈdʒɪɡəl /

verb

1. to move or cause to move up and down or to and fro with a short jerky motion

   to jiggle the door handle

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noun

1. a short jerky motion

Other Word Forms

• jiggler
  noun
• jiggly
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of jiggle

First recorded in 1835–40; jig ² + -le

Explanation

To jiggle is to move very quickly back and forth or up and down. If you ride in a car over bumpy roads holding a bowl of Jello on your lap, you can watch it jiggle until you reach your destination. You might feel your body jiggle when you ride on a galloping horse, and you can also jiggle something, like when you accidentally jiggle a chess board and send the pieces flying. The action of moving in this way is a jiggle. Jiggle comes from jig, "lively dance," and is probably an alteration of the earlier joggle, "move with jerks or small bobs."

Example Sentences

Jiggle Jiggle grew even bigger when musical theatre performers Jess Qualter and Brooke Blewitt choreographed a dance to the song, which has now been watched 67m times.

From BBC • Dec. 6, 2022

The 51-year-old son of novelist and travel writer Paul Theroux debuted his “My Money Don’t Jiggle, Jiggle, It Folds” rap on a 2000 episode of his docuseries “Weird Weekends.”

From Los Angeles Times • May 6, 2022

You can turn entire home screen pages on or off depending on your mood in iOS 14 Jiggle mode and editing pages Look, I’m calling it jiggle mode.

From The Verge • Jun. 24, 2020

Actually, it is analogous to an Alexander Calder mobile: Jiggle something here, things wiggle way over there, and there, and there.

From Washington Post • Aug. 23, 2019

Jiggle In Bolivar, N. Y. 400 quarts of nitroglycerin exploded, shook the countryside.

From Time Magazine Archive

Related Words

• fidget
• shimmy
• twitch
• wiggle