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squirm

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

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WOTD – 2 June 2008

Etymology

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First recorded 1690's, originally used of eels; cognate withScotssquimmer(“to wriggle, squirm”). Of uncertain origin. Compare dialectalquirm,whirm(“to disappear quickly, vanish suddenly and mysteriously”),Norwegiankverva(“to turn around, take away, remove, shrink”), fromOld Norsehverfa(“to turn, vanish”). Alternatively, perhapsimitative or related toworm (in the sense of writhing movement) orswarm.

Pronunciation

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(Received Pronunciation)IPA^(key): /skwɜːm/
(General American)IPA^(key): /skwɝm/
Audio(US): (file)
Audio(General Australian): (file)
Rhymes:-ɜː(ɹ)m

Verb

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squirm (third-person singular simple presentsquirms,present participlesquirming,simple past and past participlesquirmed)

(intransitive) Totwist one's body withsnakelikemotions.
Synonyms:writhe,wriggle
The prisoner managed tosquirm out of the straitjacket.
- 1918 September–November,Edgar Rice Burroughs, “The Land That Time Forgot”, inThe Blue Book Magazine, Chicago, Ill.: Story-press Corp.,→OCLC; republished as chapter IV, inHugo Gernsback, editor,Amazing Stories,(please specify |part=I to III), New York, N.Y.:Experimenter Publishing,1927,→OCLC:
  […] around us there had sprung up a perfect bedlam of screams and hisses and a seething caldron of hideous reptiles, devoid of fear and filled only with hunger and with rage. They clambered,squirmed and wriggled to the deck, forcing us steadily backward, though we emptied our pistols into them.
- 1922 October 26,Virginia Woolf, chapter 1, inJacob’s Room, Richmond, London: […] Leonard & Virginia Woolf at theHogarth Press,→OCLC; republished London: The Hogarth Press,1960,→OCLC:
  "Throw it away, dear, do," she said, as they got into the road; but Jacobsquirmed away from her[…]
- 2011 February 5, Michael Kevin Darling, “Tottenham 2 - 1 Bolton”, inBBC‎^[1]:
  The Dutchman then missed a retaken second spot-kick, before the Trotters hit back when Daniel Sturridge's shotsquirmed under Heurelho Gomes.
(intransitive) Totwist indiscomfort, especially fromshame orembarrassment.
Synonym:fidget
I recounted the embarrassing story in detail just to watch himsquirm.
- 2010,Jeph Jacques,Questionable Content 1686: Twist in the Wind‎^[2]:
  MARIGOLD: Should I tell them I know?
  DORA: Nah, let ’emsquirm. Let’s go get some pie.
Toevade a question, an interviewer etc.(Can we add anexample for this sense?)