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# wriggle

«wriggle» in Mova's school dictionary: **to twist and turn your body quickly from side to side:…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 1 sentence of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

verb (wriggle, wriggles, wriggled, wriggling); noun (a wriggle, wriggles)

### meaning for a pupil

1) To wriggle means to twist and turn your body quickly from side to side: "the worm wriggled in my hand". [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/W/wriggle/#m1)

2) To wriggle into or out of something means to get into or out of it by twisting: "he wriggled into his wetsuit". [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/W/wriggle/#m2)

3) To wriggle out of something means to avoid doing it by being clever or making excuses. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/W/wriggle/#m3)

4) (noun) A wriggle is a twisting movement. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/W/wriggle/#m4)

### sense in the lessons

In science, worms, snakes, tadpoles and fish wriggle to move. In stories, children wriggle on carpets or in their seats when bored, and a sly character wriggles out of trouble. Phrases: wriggle out of, wriggle free, wriggle about, wriggle room.

### examples

- The worm wriggled across the path. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/W/wriggle/#x1)
- Stop wriggling and sit still! [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/W/wriggle/#x2)
- The puppy wriggled out of my arms. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/W/wriggle/#x3)
- She wriggled into her tight jeans. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/W/wriggle/#x4)
- He tried to wriggle out of doing the dishes. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/W/wriggle/#x5)
- The tadpoles wriggled in the pond. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/W/wriggle/#x6)
- The rope was loose, so the prisoner wriggled free. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/W/wriggle/#x7)

### note

Past: wriggled. The w is silent: "RIG-ul". Wiggle (move side to side, often playfully) is very close in meaning; squirm is a wriggle from discomfort or shame.

### In the corpora

- [A scared animal may scratch, bite, wriggle free and fall.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/288-being-gentle-with-small-animals/7/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «wriggle» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/W/wriggle/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.