How to Use wriggle in a Sentence

wriggle

1 of 2 verb
Definition of wrigglenext
Synonyms for wrigglenext
  • The snake wriggled across the path and went underneath a bush.
  • The tree is very loose in the soil, easy to wriggle like a loose tooth.
    — oregonlive.com, 15 June 2019
  • Their hopes were dashed when Musk tried to wriggle out of the deal.
    — Kevin Crowe, USA TODAY, 5 Oct. 2022
  • The bug wriggled in her ear on the trip to the hospital.
    — Tamara Lush, OrlandoSentinel.com, 4 May 2018
  • Live crab from the North wriggle in huge tanks in the fish market.
    — Jane Perlez, New York Times, 5 June 2018
  • Nicky Wire’s bass-lines wriggle in the loam at the bottom of the mix, like Jah Wobble’s.
    — Longreads, 25 June 2019
  • After about two hours, the Dixons wriggled out of the tape and called police.
    — Vic Ryckaert, Indianapolis Star, 3 Sep. 2019
  • The day was a tight skin that only booze could help me wriggle my way out of.
    — Beth Kephart, chicagotribune.com, 2 Apr. 2018
  • The notion that embryos can wriggle around in the womb or egg isn’t new.
    — Katherine J. Wu, The Atlantic, 26 Oct. 2021
  • After the show, my daughter wriggled her way to the front of the scrum at the stage door with her Playbill.
    — Sam Walker, WSJ, 11 July 2018
  • And sure enough, my wife pushed a second time, [and] his body just wriggled out.
    — Grace Gavilanes, PEOPLE.com, 31 July 2019
  • Small eels can use a fish ladder at the dams, while large eels are able to wriggle up and over.
    — Liz Bowie, baltimoresun.com, 17 May 2018
  • Your child must be mature enough to sit up straight and not wriggle around.
    — Daniela Porat, ProPublica, 6 Feb. 2020
  • Meanwhile, the child being held by the first man can be seen wriggling around in his arms.
    — Abigail Adams, Peoplemag, 10 Aug. 2023
  • Time to wriggle out of your cozy sleeping sock and seize the day, like this little chick has.
    — Aj Willingham, CNN, 30 Apr. 2021
  • He’s stuck between a rock and a hard place, unable to wriggle free.
    — Alex Shephard, The New Republic, 9 Feb. 2022
  • The fish thaws and revives in the dog's stomach, where its wriggling causes the dog to vomit.
    — Anchorage Daily News, 28 Dec. 2019
  • Pull that out and leave it on a chair, just in case someone wants to wriggle in for a full-body snuggle.
    — Outside Online, 17 Nov. 2020
  • There are some thinkers whose ideas emerge slowly, wriggle around, take turns.
    — Michelle Orange, Harper's Magazine, 3 Nov. 2023
  • The female fish will wash ashore, wriggle into the sand tail first and lay about 3,000 eggs a few inches deep.
    — Daily Pilot Staff, latimes.com, 13 June 2019
  • Rodents can wriggle through a hole as small as a pencil (ick!).
    — Arricca Elin Sansone, House Beautiful, 23 Nov. 2022
  • The little girl in front of me wriggles with excitement.
    — Melanie Radzicki McManus, chicagotribune.com, 18 Nov. 2019
  • Now, 60 to 80 leopard seals wriggle ashore every year at Cape Shirreff, in the South Shetlands.
    — Craig Welch, National Geographic, 13 Jan. 2023
  • Roughed up and dazed, and with a broken rib, Denis was able to wriggle free from his bindings and tumble out of the van.
    — Tom Sancton, Town & Country, 31 Mar. 2022
  • The jelly center of the cassiosomes is coated with cells that have tiny hairs, which wriggle to move the blob around.
    — Leslie Nemo, Discover Magazine, 13 Feb. 2020
  • Why Things Go Boom Why did those slo-mo flames just transform into a wriggling square of fruit leather?
    — Scientific American, 4 Nov. 2019
  • Females wriggle into the sand tail-first and bury their eggs; then males curve around them to fertilize the eggs.
    — Deborah Sullivan Brennan, sandiegouniontribune.com, 15 Mar. 2018
  • Elon Musk is trying to wriggle out of his $44 billion deal to buy Twitter.
    — Scott Nover, Quartz, 8 Aug. 2022
  • The fish wriggled desperately until the egret opened wide and gulped it down.
    — Bob Robinson, Arkansas Online, 19 June 2023
  • Each mother never left her litter, not even to feed, and the hatchlings wriggled around on her back and nuzzled up to the end of her body.
    — Sofia Quaglia, New York Times, 7 Mar. 2024
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wriggle

2 of 2 noun
  • One of the people wriggles under the gate of the tow yard.
    — oregonlive, 19 Feb. 2020
  • Their valley is bare dirt, halved by a wriggle of creek.
    — New York Times, 7 Apr. 2020
  • If so, the Ducks will enter the meet -- June 7-10 at Hayward Field -- with wriggle room.
    — Ken Goe, OregonLive.com, 30 May 2017
  • Look out for eels’ eyes peeking out from coral castles, and watch the glowing green tentacles of a sea anemone wriggle in the tide.
    — Shannon Sims, New York Times, 11 Feb. 2020
  • Through a series of plot wriggles, Grace has the opportunity to hang around in the Oval Office.
    — Josephine Livingstone, New Republic, 27 Sep. 2017
  • But the legal decision left the county no wriggle room.
    — John King, San Francisco Chronicle, 23 June 2021
  • On one hand, the country appears to be running out of financial wriggle room.
    — The Economist, 2 Nov. 2017
  • Deadpan humor is a slippery creature; miss the tone by just a little, and the potential wriggles away.
    — Neil Genzlinger, New York Times, 3 May 2017
  • The dancers, who double as performers and teachers, gyrate in a circle as the alpacas wriggle among them.
    — John Clarke, WSJ, 25 Mar. 2018
  • There are puppy snuggles, kisses, and adorable wriggles that will keep you entertained for hours.
    — Sophia Caraballo, Woman's Day, 4 June 2019
  • From Dave Spang’s perch high atop a sandy cliff in Truro, the vast ocean wriggles and writhes almost imperceptibly beneath a cloudless sky.
    — BostonGlobe.com, 26 Sep. 2019
  • Just under your skin lie whole aqueous worlds, where trillions of cells spark and beat and wriggle and secrete, doing all the complicated tasks of keeping you alive.
    — Megan Molteni, STAT, 14 May 2022
  • One robot wriggles like a newborn baby to understand its body.
    — NBC News, 19 June 2017
  • God- and state-fearing Although Christians are growing more numerous, the wriggle room allowed to them is shrinking.
    — The Economist, 15 Mar. 2018
  • Museums in China have barely any wriggle room to question the official line.
    — The Economist, 16 Dec. 2017
  • By leaving the margin outlook unchanged, Rorsted also gave himself some wriggle-room to invest to compete with Nike Inc. and to continue to rejuvenate Reebok.
    — Washington Post, 6 Aug. 2019
  • It might be coated with compounds capable of making sperm wriggle in place, keeping them from inseminating a woman’s egg.
    — Zoë Schlanger, Newsweek, 15 Dec. 2014
  • And the cry to do something, anything, will only grow louder, though the paucity of top prospects and aforementioned inflexibility will leave GM Brian Cashman with limited wriggle room.
    — USA Today, 31 May 2021
  • All but about 15% of the revenue is dedicated by voters, leaving little wriggle room for discretion by the council; for example, about one third of the entire capital budget is dedicated to drainage.
    — Faimon Roberts, NOLA.com, 9 Dec. 2020
  • The planned July 19 lifting of most restrictions is being touted by Johnson as a milestone, but the prime minister, characteristically, has left himself some wriggle room.
    — Laura King, Los Angeles Times, 6 July 2021
  • That description offers a little more wriggle room; Windows 10 might only have a plurality share of enterprise systems rather than the majority share Nadella claimed.
    — Peter Bright, Ars Technica, 25 Oct. 2018
  • Second, Intel also ships each mobile processor with some wriggle room for notebook makers, allowing them to trade off higher power consumption (and probably lower battery life) for more upclocked performance.
    — Mark Hachman, PCWorld, 21 Aug. 2019
  • One of the people wriggles under the gate of the tow yard.
    — oregonlive, 19 Feb. 2020
  • Their valley is bare dirt, halved by a wriggle of creek.
    — New York Times, 7 Apr. 2020
  • If so, the Ducks will enter the meet -- June 7-10 at Hayward Field -- with wriggle room.
    — Ken Goe, OregonLive.com, 30 May 2017
  • Look out for eels’ eyes peeking out from coral castles, and watch the glowing green tentacles of a sea anemone wriggle in the tide.
    — Shannon Sims, New York Times, 11 Feb. 2020
  • Through a series of plot wriggles, Grace has the opportunity to hang around in the Oval Office.
    — Josephine Livingstone, New Republic, 27 Sep. 2017
  • But the legal decision left the county no wriggle room.
    — John King, San Francisco Chronicle, 23 June 2021
  • On one hand, the country appears to be running out of financial wriggle room.
    — The Economist, 2 Nov. 2017
  • Deadpan humor is a slippery creature; miss the tone by just a little, and the potential wriggles away.
    — Neil Genzlinger, New York Times, 3 May 2017

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'wriggle.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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