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Writhe wound its way to us from the Old English verb wrīthan, meaning “to twist,” and that ancestral meaning lives on in the word’s current uses, most of which have to do with twists of one kind or another. Among the oldest of these uses is the meaning “to twist into coils or folds,” but in modern use writhing is more often about the physical contortions of one suffering from debilitating pain or attempting to remove oneself from a tight grasp (as, say, a snake from a hawk’s talons). The word is also not infrequently applied to the twisting bodies of dancers. The closest relation of writhe in modern English lacks any of the painful connotations often present in writhe: wreath comes from Old English writha, which shares an ancestor with wrīthan.
Examples of writhe in a Sentence
Ryan Gaydos, FOXNews.com, 13 May 2025
And to make matters that much worse, Tatum, a first-team All-NBA selection the last three seasons, was writhing around the court, holding his right leg, begging for a timeout.
—Sean Gregory, Time, 13 May 2025
Creatures inhabited every inch of the rocky seafloor, writhing in a patchwork of life.
—Maya Wei-Haas, New York Times, 2 May 2025
The performance, part of Haim’s headlining show at the Bellwether, featured Rae writhing around the stage as the band premiered the mid-tempo rock track.
—Emily Zemler, Rolling Stone, 24 Apr. 2025
See All Example Sentences for writhe
Cite this Entry
“Writhe.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/writhe. Accessed 19 May. 2025.
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