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View synonyms for wiggle

wiggle

[ wig-uhl ]

verb (used without object)

, wig·gled, wig·gling.
  1. to move or go with short, quick, irregular movements from side to side:

    The puppies wiggled with delight.



verb (used with object)

, wig·gled, wig·gling.
  1. to cause to wiggle; move quickly and irregularly from side to side.

noun

  1. a wiggling movement or course.
  2. a wiggly line.
  3. a dish of creamed fish or shellfish and peas.

wiggle

/ ˈwɪɡəl /

verb

  1. to move or cause to move with jerky movements, esp from side to side
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012


noun

  1. the act or an instance of wiggling
  2. get a wiggle on slang.
    to hurry up
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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Derived Forms

  • ˈwiggler, noun
  • ˈwiggly, adjective
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Other Words From

  • outwiggle verb (used with object) outwiggled outwiggling
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Word History and Origins

Origin of wiggle1

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
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Word History and Origins

Origin of wiggle1

C13: from Middle Low German, Middle Dutch wiggelen
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Idioms and Phrases

Idioms
  1. get a wiggle on, Informal. to hurry up; get a move on:

    If you don't get a wiggle on, we'll miss the first act.

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Example Sentences

The NFL has precious little wiggle room if more teams suffer outbreaks, but on a league level, so far it’s a navigable situation.

Thinner margins accompanied by relatively high rates of debt provide less wiggle room if the properties, or the economy, run into trouble.

Some camps say even the current rules provide some wiggle room and they might choose to open regardless of whether they’re changed.

Surprisingly, one was a wiggle to only one side of the cell.

A truly all-terrain rover on the moon or Mars may need to put a little wiggle in its walk.

Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle, wiggle, wiggle, wiggle, wiggle, wiggle, wiggle.

Why are we still listening to songs like “Wiggle” on the radio?

Many of us strike a happy medium, leaving enough wiggle room with reality to spin a good yarn.

And so his horizons slope, his power lines wiggle, his bridges curve.

Bound by teachings on same-sex marriage, yes, but there was apparently some wiggle room on the issue of marriage in general.

Oi know ye're there, fer Oi saw th' bushes wiggle a wee bit.

Hank, he's trying to look the other way, but that doctor won't let his eyes wiggle away from his'n.

The wiggle has to be three or four octaves above that before the nerves will have anything to do with it.

They wear yearning facial expressions; when they start to walk, they do not walk, but writhe and wiggle.

I hold that natur haz its laws and programmy, all the wa down, from the biling over ov a volkano tu the wiggle ov a lam's tale.

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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.

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