wiggle
Americanverb (used without object)
verb (used with object)
noun
-
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
-
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:
Burnham has little wiggle room to meaningfully spend or borrow more.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 17, 2026
Even the plans Burnham has hinted at so far could easily exceed the available wiggle room.
From BBC ● Jun. 23, 2026
Beyond seasonal deals, experts recommend buying ground beef in bulk if you have the freezer space and wiggle room in your budget.
From MarketWatch ● May 22, 2026
But on the weeks when I have a little more energy — a little more calendar wiggle room, a little more curiosity — I try to widen my grocery orbit.
From Salon ● May 22, 2026
I wiggle our hands, which makes her smile.
From "A Soft Place to Land" by Janae Marks
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
Shiloh wiggles a few inches closer to her on his belly, rests his nose against her thigh, tail going whick, whack, whick, whack.
From "Shiloh" by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
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
Though Yamamoto wiggled out of the jam, it took him 23 pitches to escape the first inning.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 26, 2025
Rojas wore Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s blue glove, wiggled the ball in it and hesitated during his windup.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 29, 2025
His comments wiggled a finger in a wound which has been festering for some fans of top-flight football this season - the idea that the Premier League has become boring.
From BBC ● Apr. 11, 2025
She wiggled both wrists like she was turning two doorknobs, excited.
From "The Line Tender" by Kate Allen
Maybe wiggling about a bit will throw off the kicker.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 7, 2026
“Nooo,” comes a shout from the back of the room, a solo red paddle wiggling.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 26, 2026
You can bet that most Americans, meanwhile, will be wiggling their hips to “Dákiti.”
From Salon ● Oct. 15, 2025
When Noland awoke from the surgery which installed the device, he said he was initially able to control a cursor on a screen by thinking about wiggling his fingers.
From BBC ● Mar. 22, 2025
I imagined her toes wiggling happily in her colorful socks.
From "Popcorn" by Rob Harrell
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.
