FreeScrabbleDictionary

squirm

Valid in Scrabble

Scrabble points
17
Words With Friends
19
Letters
6
Pronunciation
/skwɜːm/
See all 2 pronunciations
/skwɜːm/ · /skwɝm/

Definition of squirm

4 senses · 2 parts of speech · etymology included

verb

  1. (intransitive)To twist one's body with snakelike motions.
    “The prisoner managed to squirm out of the straitjacket.”
    “[…] 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.”
    “"Throw it away, dear, do," she said, as they got into the road; but Jacob squirmed away from her […]”
    “The Dutchman then missed a retaken second spot-kick, before the Trotters hit back when Daniel Sturridge's shot squirmed under Heurelho Gomes.”
See all 4 definitions

verb

  1. (intransitive)To twist one's body with snakelike motions.
    “The prisoner managed to squirm out of the straitjacket.”
    “[…] 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.”
    “"Throw it away, dear, do," she said, as they got into the road; but Jacob squirmed away from her […]”
    “The Dutchman then missed a retaken second spot-kick, before the Trotters hit back when Daniel Sturridge's shot squirmed under Heurelho Gomes.”
  2. (intransitive)To twist in discomfort, especially from shame or embarrassment.
    “I recounted the embarrassing story in detail just to watch him squirm.”
    “MARIGOLD: Should I tell them I know? DORA: Nah, let ’em squirm. Let’s go get some pie.”
  3. To evade a question, an interviewer etc.

noun

  1. A twisting, snakelike movement of the body.

Definitions from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA.

Etymology

First recorded 1690's, originally used of eels; cognate with Scots squimmer (“to wriggle, squirm”). Of uncertain origin. Compare dialectal quirm, whirm (“to disappear quickly, vanish suddenly and mysteriously”), Norwegian kverva (“to turn around, take away, remove, shrink”), from Old Norse hverfa (“to turn, vanish”). Alternatively, perhaps imitative or related to worm (in the sense of writhing movement) or swarm.

Words you can make from squirm

24 playable · top: QIS (12 pts)

Best play qis 12 points

4-letter words

4 words

3-letter words

12 words

2-letter words

7 words

Hooks

2 extensions · 2 back

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