squiggle
Americannoun
-
squiggles
plural
verb (used without object)
-
squiggles,
present (3rd person singular)
-
squiggled,
past participle, past
-
squiggling
present participle
verb (used with object)
-
squiggles,
present (3rd person singular)
-
squiggled,
past participle, past
-
squiggling
present participle
noun
-
a mark or movement in the form of a wavy line; curlicue
-
an illegible scrawl
verb
-
(intr) to wriggle
-
(intr) to form or draw squiggles
-
(tr) to make into squiggles
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
squigglesimple
-
squigglessimple
-
have squiggledperfect
-
has squiggledperfect
-
am squigglingprogressive
-
are squigglingprogressive
-
is squigglingprogressive
-
have been squigglingperfect progressive
-
has been squigglingperfect progressive
Past
-
squiggledsimple
-
had squiggledperfect
-
was squigglingprogressive
-
were squigglingprogressive
-
had been squigglingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of squiggle
Explanation
A squiggle is a curly, looping line, like the squiggle that serves as your signature when you sloppily sign your name. If you can't read someone's writing, you can call it a squiggle or a scrawl. You can also use squiggle to describe decorative accents or drawn designs, like squiggles of paint in modern art or ornamental squiggles in the pattern on your sofa. Squiggle originated in the early 19th century and was initially used a verb derived from wriggle and squirm.
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:
Richards’s signature style is to break down complex behavioral-finance concepts into minimalist line drawings — sometimes just a squiggle — with only a few words.
From MarketWatch ● Mar. 16, 2026
"That's what happened here. We had all sort of noticed this fishhook squiggle on the rock. It was pretty prominent because it was really, really deep."
From Science Daily ● Nov. 18, 2024
In other scenes, such as one where he's specifically asked his name, squiggle lines appear over his lips, suggesting that a spell has been cast to prevent him from revealing himself.
From Salon ● Sep. 19, 2024
Justin Troyka’s signature “has become more of a random squiggle in recent years.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 8, 2024
The words beneath the horizontal half-moons had a line running through them that ended in a squiggle.
From "P.S. Be Eleven" by Rita Williams-Garcia
The off-white form of the rustic terracotta jar, shattered over millenniums and fastidiously reassembled, is elegantly decorated in rich brown and black designs, including bursts of rosettes and abstract squiggles.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 10, 2025
The genus name uncus means “hook” in Latin, after the fishhooklike squiggles on the rock left by the fossils.
From Science Magazine ● Nov. 19, 2024
My hearing had gotten worse, as shown on an audiogram filled with X’s, O’s and squiggles connecting them.
From Salon ● Sep. 30, 2024
EEGs use small sensors attached to the scalp to measure the brain's electrical signals, producing a long line of up and down squiggles.
From Science Daily ● May 29, 2024
Her paper also had a lot of the same squiggles, half-moons, and the words Good first effort.
From "P.S. Be Eleven" by Rita Williams-Garcia
Yields squiggled following the latest batch of reports on the economy.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 28, 2023
The book, compiled between 1967-1968, features Sir Paul McCartney's draft of the famous song alongside poetry and doodles squiggled by the music legend.
From BBC ● Feb. 14, 2022
Over the course of a profoundly productive journalism career, he was able to translate all those squiggled notes into some of the finest long-form writing The Post has ever published.
From Washington Post ● Jun. 15, 2020
When the EKG was connected to the electrodes on her chest, a horizontal line squiggled out, followed by a few tiny waves marking the last electrical activity in her heart.
From New York Times ● May 10, 2020
Worms squiggled frantically from a billion holes in the ground and drowned, their pale bleached bodies floating everywhere.
From "The Milagro Beanfield War" by John Nichols
Some look like earthworms and others are covered in tiny bristles, squiggling about.
From BBC ● Jun. 13, 2022
But just below the surface the music teems with inner details: flourishes of offbeat counterpoint for the voices, squiggling riffs for the instruments.
From New York Times ● Dec. 13, 2021
It's great for squiggling on a slice of pizza or on top of a bowl of fried rice, and its flavor can be found carried into all types of food products.
From Washington Post ● Jun. 18, 2021
The cicadas will mostly come out at dusk to try to avoid everything that wants to eat them, squiggling out of holes in the ground.
From Seattle Times ● May 4, 2021
They constantly badgered me to do the “James Brown” for them, a squiggling of the feet made famous by the “Godfather of Soul” himself, who back in the sixties was bigger than life.
From "The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother" by James McBride
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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.
