jiggle
Americanverb (used with or without object)
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jiggles,
present (3rd person singular)
-
jiggled,
past participle, past
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jiggling
present participle
noun
-
jiggles
plural
verb
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
jigglesimple
-
jigglessimple
-
have jiggledperfect
-
has jiggledperfect
-
am jigglingprogressive
-
are jigglingprogressive
-
is jigglingprogressive
-
have been jigglingperfect progressive
-
has been jigglingperfect progressive
Past
-
jiggledsimple
-
had jiggledperfect
-
was jigglingprogressive
-
were jigglingprogressive
-
had been jigglingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of jiggle
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
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
"It's this superconducting gel that we're sort of seeing jiggle," von Hoegen says.
From Science Daily ● Mar. 17, 2026
In an AI era when attackers can jiggle every virtual doorknob continuously, human defenders don’t stand a chance.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 19, 2026
I’ve spent entire evenings Googling ranch dressing varietals, decoding the semiotics of suburban chain restaurant menus, pondering the subtle thrill of foods that jiggle.
From Salon ● May 26, 2025
Some attendees’ legs jiggle dramatically as they adjust to the board’s movement.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 24, 2024
I love how the Spanish disco thumps out from windows, and how the people propped halfway out still jiggle and dance in the sill and frame.
From "Native Speaker" by Chang-rae Lee
He fidgets with a pair of eyeglasses and points a knobby index finger to underscore a point, jiggles his leg restlessly and, at one point, mimes playing guitar.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 6, 2026
As your brain jiggles and twists, neurons—the long, cordlike cells that transmit signals in the brain—stretch and fray.
From Slate ● Mar. 17, 2024
If you tweak one, the rest jiggles for a while and then comes back to where it was.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 1, 2022
Noise often jiggles the underlying data, but the topology remains the same—revealing robust features of the system.
From Scientific American ● Sep. 26, 2022
Sometimes I can’t even look at fat when it jiggles, man.
From "We Were Here" by Matt De La Peña
Kylie Jenner kept rubbing and patting Chalamet’s hand while he nervously jiggled his right leg.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 16, 2026
"There was an old lady who swallowed a spider that wriggled, and jiggled and tickled inside her..."
From BBC ● Aug. 5, 2023
She beamed even brighter and — why not, with so much time on her hands? — jiggled her tambourine.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 1, 2022
He jiggled the door handle to an office that he believed belonged to Pelosi, but it was locked.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 25, 2022
The astronomical clock in any case was so jarred and jiggled by the constant rattle of automobile traffic in the narrow street outside that it was no longer the precision instrument it had been.
From "The Hiding Place" by Corrie ten Boom
She looks toward the ceiling, jiggling her head slightly, as though she’s doing some mental math regarding the track list.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 6, 2026
It is a difficult and intricate process where laser light is shone at the atoms to stop them jiggling about so much.
From BBC ● Feb. 22, 2024
Others joined in: jiggling, dancing and waving to police officers parked nearby.
From Seattle Times ● Jun. 24, 2023
Which is why there’s so much debate about whether Ralph Yarl was jiggling the knob or whatever.
From Slate ● Apr. 25, 2023
Then she drinks two more glasses of sugary banana milk and eats three sweet rolls, her chin jiggling as she chews.
From "The Queen of Water" by Laura Resau
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
