squirm
/skwəːm
/verb [no object]
1Wriggle or twist the body from side to side, especially as a result of nervousness or discomfort: he looked uncomfortable and squirmed in his chair...
- The Wolf girl was grunting and squirming, her body wiggling from side to side.
- Strapped in their car seats, children make nightmarish passengers, wriggling, squirming and whining.
- A technician discovered the dead rodent and believes it had squirmed into the body of the PC to keep warm.
Synonyms
wriggle, wiggle, writhe, twist, slide, slither, turn, shift, fidget, jiggle, twitch, thresh, flounder, flail, toss and turn;
agonize
1.1Show or feel embarrassment or shame: he squirmed as he recalled the phrases he had used...
- This was very funny stuff, much of it excruciatingly so - straight out of the theatre of embarrassment - making viewers squirm as well as laugh.
- Let us not delight in making others squirm by humiliating or embarrassing them in public.
- They went quite well, she blushed, and then squirmed as she was asked what ‘quite well’ actually meant.
noun [in singular]
A wriggling movement: the toddler gave a sudden squirm...
- Okay, so the album's not a step forward so much as a squirm in quicksand.
- The unconscious girl gave a slight squirm in the warmth of Kashiro's embrace.
- Tanj did her best to shrug, a motion that came out as a squirm more than anything.
Derivatives
squirmer
- The flick has the substance and comedy to entertain an adult audience, and enough pizzazz and yahoo to keep even the youngest squirmer of the family in his seat.
- Even if you use the safety belt, you should still keep one hand on your little squirmer at all times.
- Buddy was such a squirmer, we put him in pull-ups earlier just because they were easier to get on him.
squirmy
- To avoid disturbing the session, I pick him up out of his car seat and walk him up and down the room, he's a bit squirmy but calming down.
- But the ends to which it aspires are neither moderate, nor reasonable, and it gives me a squirmy feeling to contemplate them.
- But several of the groups seem a little squirmy in their new clothes.
Origin
Late 17th century: symbolic of writhing movement; probably associated with worm.