wriggled

past tense of wriggle
1
2
as in crawled
to move slowly with the body close to the ground a worm slowly wriggled across the sidewalk

Synonyms & Similar Words

3
as in snuck
to introduce in a gradual, secret, or clever way within a month of his arrival, this social upstart had wriggled himself into the family's good graces

Synonyms & Similar Words

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for wriggled
Verb
  • One roach crawled on the floor by the prep table.
    David J. Neal, Miami Herald, 12 Sep. 2025
  • Insects crawled through clinical areas, and staff food was stored alongside medical supplies.
    Walter Pavlo, Forbes.com, 10 Sep. 2025
Verb
  • My hand twitched toward the phone, muscle memory stronger than willpower.
    Maggie Downs, Oc Register, 9 Sep. 2025
  • The mechanism for raising and lowering the pen made a weak clunking sound and barely twitched.
    Stephen Cass, IEEE Spectrum, 27 June 2025
Verb
  • Chicago's wild card lead over the San Diego Padres has crept down to just two games with a little under three weeks remaining in the season.
    Andrew Wright, MSNBC Newsweek, 10 Sep. 2025
  • The jobs report from July shattered the narrative that the economy of 2025 was strong, revising previous figures downward and revealing something close to an 80% collapse in hiring, even as inflation crept upwards and layoffs rolled.
    Nick Lichtenberg, Fortune, 8 Sep. 2025
Verb
  • Martin Suarez is the only deep-undercover FBI agent in history to have infiltrated a Colombian drug cartel.
    Martin Suarez, Rolling Stone, 13 Sep. 2025
  • Poland this week shot down Russian drones that infiltrated its airspace, prompting NATO to invoke Article 4.
    Jonathan Easley, The Hill, 11 Sep. 2025
Verb
  • Nvidia shares slid about 2% before the bell.
    Alex Harring, CNBC, 15 Sep. 2025
  • Under the guise of trying to help Erik, a former girlfriend slid back into his life, and in the process, stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from him.
    ForbesTV, Forbes.com, 15 Sep. 2025
Verb
  • Four plays later, Hurts snuck in for the two-score lead that sealed the team’s second win.
    Brooks Kubena, New York Times, 15 Sep. 2025
  • Read about a man who has snuck into prestigious events for nearly a decade.
    Alexandra Banner, CNN Money, 10 Sep. 2025
Verb
  • This concern has been tossed around (and tossed aside) for years.
    U T Readers, San Diego Union-Tribune, 13 Sep. 2025
  • The swells rocked the boat violently, sent wave after wave over the stern, threw us sideways, and nearly tossed all of us into the ocean again and again.
    Martin Suarez, Rolling Stone, 13 Sep. 2025
Verb
  • Lines snaked around every outside court, contrasting sharply with the ones only in use for practice, sparsely and quietly populated with players honing their skills for the bigger stages.
    Matthew Futterman, New York Times, 27 Aug. 2025
  • Hundreds of energized voters snaked around Union Square on Sunday afternoon, as New Yorkers sought one of the limited Zohran Mamdani Scavenger Hunt cards at the first clue stop.
    Mandy Taheri, MSNBC Newsweek, 24 Aug. 2025
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

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Cite this Entry

“Wriggled.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/wriggled. Accessed 19 Sep. 2025.

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