wriggle
Americanverb (used without object)
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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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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
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
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.
That’s exactly how the world’s villains want us to be: angry and afraid, trying to wriggle free from the spider’s web while they laugh and plot our demise.
From Salon • May 19, 2026
The rules allowed some wriggle room for Japan to ship weapons and components to key partners under joint-development programs deemed critical to Japan’s security, such as ballistic missile defense systems developed with the U.S.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 21, 2026
Chelsea know there is wriggle room in the title race with meetings against Arsenal and City to follow later this month.
From BBC • Jan. 11, 2026
Matthew Umhofer, an attorney representing the Alliance, said the city paid big money to Gibson Dunn in a failed attempt to wriggle out of its legal obligations.
From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 8, 2025
It had been hard for them to wriggle free of the brokers who covered rich people and to get into the arms of brokers who covered big, stock market–investing institutions.
From "The Big Short" by Michael Lewis
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.
