Squirm
Pronunciation
- UK IPA: /skwÉœËm/
- US IPA: /skwÉm/
- Rhymes: -ÉœË(r)m
Origin
Unknown. Perhaps imitative.
Full definition of squirm
Verb
- To twist one’s body with snakelike motions.The prisoner managed to squirm out of the straitjacket.
- 1918, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Land That Time Forgot (novel) Chapter IV...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, Virginia Woolf, Jacob's Room Chapter 1"Throw it away, dear, do," she said, as they got into the road; but Jacob squirmed away from her...
- To twist in discomfort, especially from shame or embarrassment.I recounted the embarrassing story in detail just to watch him squirm.
- 2010, Jeph Jacques, Questionable Content 1686: Twist in the WindMARIGOLD: Should I tell them I know?DORA: Nah, let ’em squirm. Let’s go get some pie.
- To evade (a question, an interviewer etc).
- (figuratively) To move in a slow, irregular motion.
- 2011, February 5, Michael Kevin Darling, Tottenham 2 - 1 Bolton, The Dutchman then missed a retaken second spot-kick, before the Trotters hit back when Daniel Sturridge's shot squirmed under Heurelho Gomes.