wriggle
Americanverb (used without object)
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wriggles,
present (3rd person singular)
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wriggled,
past participle, past
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wriggling
present participle
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to twist to and fro; writhe; squirm.
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to move along by twisting and turning the body, as a worm or snake.
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to make one's way by shifts or expedients (often followed byout ).
to wriggle out of a difficulty.
verb (used with object)
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wriggles,
present (3rd person singular)
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wriggled,
past participle, past
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wriggling
present participle
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to cause to wriggle.
to wriggle one's hips.
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to bring, get, make, etc., by wriggling.
to wriggle one's way through a narrow opening.
noun
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wriggles
plural
verb
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to make or cause to make twisting movements
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(intr) to progress by twisting and turning
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(intr; foll by into or out of) to manoeuvre oneself by clever or devious means
wriggle out of an embarrassing situation
noun
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a wriggling movement or action
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a sinuous marking or course
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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wrigglernoun
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outwriggleverb (used with object)
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unwriggledadjective
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wrigglyadjective
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wrigglinglyadverb
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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wrigglesimple
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wrigglessimple
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have wriggledperfect
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has wriggledperfect
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am wrigglingprogressive
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are wrigglingprogressive
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is wrigglingprogressive
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have been wrigglingperfect progressive
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has been wrigglingperfect progressive
Past
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wriggledsimple
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had wriggledperfect
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was wrigglingprogressive
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were wrigglingprogressive
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had been wrigglingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of wriggle
1485–95; < Middle Low German wriggelen (cognate with Dutch wriggelen ), frequentative of *wriggen to twist, turn, akin to Old English wrīgian to twist; see wry
Explanation
To wriggle is to squirm and twist quickly. Think of how hard it is to hold a rambunctious puppy as it wriggles in your arms. Wriggle sounds a lot like wiggle, and the two words very nearly mean the same thing. There is a subtle difference, though: when you wriggle, you twist, turn, or bend as you move. When you wiggle, you make more of a back-and-forth motion. In fact, these two near-homonyms have completely different etymological sources. While wiggle stems from a Germanic root meaning "cradle," wriggle's root means "to turn or bend."
Vocabulary lists containing wriggle
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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:
The bill’s backers are hopeful it will wriggle through this legislative session and land on the governor’s desk.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 29, 2026
Protected by their cipher and full of vim, the Americans were under a blanket of surveillance in Moscow so heavy that they couldn’t wriggle out long enough to meet refuseniks.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 25, 2026
"I would see a child try to wriggle away or stand up and walk off, but he'd say, 'sit here and we're going to read a book'."
From BBC ● Jun. 22, 2026
Rather, she’s snared Millie in a trap while desperately trying to wriggle free from one herself.
From Salon ● Jan. 31, 2026
She says this the same way my brother says “slug juice” or “snot” when Carol’s around, and Carol does the same thing, the same wrinkle of the nose, the same wriggle.
From "Cat's Eye" by Margaret Atwood
It wriggles back into the streets aiming for friends, tunes, food.
From Salon ● Aug. 11, 2026
Oliver is used to hospitals, but is fretful, and wriggles as the research nurse slowly injects the treatment, about a cup full, into a catheter in his chest.
From BBC ● Nov. 23, 2025
She wriggles her nose, rolls her eyes and turns her face to the side, trying not to completely cast me off.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 7, 2024
When a nematode wriggles around a petri dish, what’s going on inside a tiny roundworm’s even tinier brain?
From Scientific American ● Aug. 21, 2023
Alan lets go of Dapir and wriggles through the masses to my side.
From "Without Refuge" by Jane Mitchell
Forty years ago in February, Jackson wriggled free of her father Joe Jackson’s stifling management with the release of “Control.”
From Salon ● Apr. 11, 2026
Servin remembered her daughter as a bubbly toddler with piercing blue eyes who wriggled with delight at the sight of Elmo.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 25, 2026
James Justin wriggled free inside the Forest area and when his shot was saved by Ortega, he had the presence of mind to square the rebound to Okafor, who slotted home from 10 yards.
From Barron's ● Feb. 6, 2026
The best example was when Sandy Baltimore had two players on her during the second goal and she wriggled away from them.
From BBC ● Jul. 8, 2025
This time we walked farther down to the shallower end of the creek and wriggled out of our sneakers to wade across.
From "Gone Crazy in Alabama" by Rita Williams-Garcia
“Before you know it, white worms are wriggling and swarming in every garbage bag and along the walls and floors and underlids of every trash can.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 12, 2026
The towering striker is technically gifted - comfortable wriggling it out of tight spaces and linking play - and has even been nicknamed 'Woltemessi' by Bayern Munich goalkeeper Manuel Neuer.
From BBC ● Aug. 30, 2025
When he got there, everything was fine, except that her baby, he discovered, was one of two wriggling black mounds covered by swarms of black flies, which were "devouring the remnants of the placental membranes."
From Salon ● Feb. 8, 2025
Other major landmarks of Mosul have also been restored - that wriggling minaret of al-Hadba, the Dominican al-Saa'a Convent and the complex of Al-Nouri mosque.
From BBC ● Feb. 5, 2025
“I want to ride on the bike too,” Raymond wailed beside me, wriggling his hand out of mine.
From "When I Was Puerto Rican" by Esmeralda Santiago
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.
