wiggle
Americanverb (used without object)
-
wiggles,
present (3rd person singular)
-
wiggled,
past participle, past
-
wiggling
present participle
verb (used with object)
-
wiggles,
present (3rd person singular)
-
wiggled,
past participle, past
-
wiggling
present participle
noun
-
wiggles
plural
-
a wiggling movement or course.
-
a wiggly line.
-
a dish of creamed fish or shellfish and peas.
idioms
verb
noun
-
the act or an instance of wiggling
-
slang to hurry up
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
wigglesimple
-
wigglessimple
-
have wiggledperfect
-
has wiggledperfect
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am wigglingprogressive
-
are wigglingprogressive
-
is wigglingprogressive
-
have been wigglingperfect progressive
-
has been wigglingperfect progressive
Past
-
wiggledsimple
-
had wiggledperfect
-
was wigglingprogressive
-
were wigglingprogressive
-
had been wigglingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of wiggle
1175–1225; Middle English wiglen; akin to Old English wegan to move, wēg motion, wicga insect; compare Norwegian vigla to totter, frequentative of vigga to rock oneself, Dutch, Low German wiggelen
Explanation
To wiggle is to move something back and forth. When you dance, you probably wiggle your hips. If you wiggle them too much, your mother might wiggle a finger at you and say "Settle down!" Young children wiggle loose teeth until they fall out. Sometimes, if your mom is trying to hold your little brother still, he'll wiggle out of her grasp and run off. Have you ever come across a rule that you don't want to follow? If so, you've probably tried to find some wiggle room, or little ways you could get out of doing what you don't want to do.
Vocabulary lists containing wiggle
Shiloh
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"Modern Automotive Technology," Vocabulary from Section 3
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"How Coach Told Me I Didn't Make the Cut" and "Bionics"
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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:
But sceptics have warned that financial constraints mean he will struggle to find wiggle room to fund bigger commitments.
From Barron's ● Sep. 16, 2026
But other schools have looked for wiggle room, and the new IRS rule does have some exceptions.
From Slate ● Sep. 3, 2026
In the initial stages, she could not lift her legs or wiggle her toes.
From BBC ● Aug. 22, 2026
That doesn’t provide a lot of wiggle room to deal with emergencies like hurricanes or tornadoes, or with increased healthcare costs as you age.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 19, 2026
I'm too tired to try to wiggle my way out of this.
From "The Sky at Our Feet" by Nadia Hashimi
Styles has a lot in common with the King of Rock and Roll: from his chiselled good looks to the particular way he wiggles his hips.
From BBC ● Jun. 13, 2026
“If you look at a video of a real baby primate, they have the exact same wiggles and imperfections,” says the filmmaker.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 15, 2025
Known as topological waves, these wiggles often occur on the border of two different regions, like plasma and the vacuum in tokamaks at its outer edge.
From Science Daily ● May 23, 2024
Rather than set in stone, this race wiggles like Jello.
From Salon ● Apr. 8, 2024
I take Charlie’s hand, but he wiggles free and walks ahead.
From "Marcus Vega Doesn't Speak Spanish" by Pablo Cartaya
To be sure, American consumers have wiggled out of tight spots before, powering the U.S. economy through decades-high inflation spikes, a pandemic, and armed conflicts.
From Barron's ● May 28, 2026
In protest, he jumped on stage, wiggled his bottom at the cameras, made a strange wafting gesture with his hands and beat a hasty retreat, pursued by Jackson's security team.
From BBC ● Feb. 27, 2026
Tesla showed off its Optimus robot, which wiggled its lifelike fingers to the crowd.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 20, 2025
“She immediately walked over to me and wiggled around like goldens do,” Koerner said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 4, 2025
He wiggled away and grinned from safety behind Karl.
From "Hattie Big Sky" by Kirby Larson
He installed himself courtside, the Windows Clippy among the die-hards, leaping from his seat after dunks and wiggling like one of those inflatable tubes at a car wash.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 3, 2026
Particularly impressive were improvements in robotic hands, Sarkar said, wiggling his fingers.
From Barron's ● Aug. 19, 2026
Genius like his is the weeds wiggling through the cracks.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 25, 2026
You can bet that most Americans, meanwhile, will be wiggling their hips to “Dákiti.”
From Salon ● Oct. 15, 2025
But she looked happy, so Jinny kept at it until Ess fell and splashed into the tide pools, laughing and wiggling.
From "Orphan Island" by Laurel Snyder
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
