squirm

CEFRB2

/skwɜːm/

verb · noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    verb

    To twist and move because you feel uncomfortable.

  2. 02

    verb

    Extra detail

    To evade a question, an interviewer etc.

Examples

  • Don't squirm, the doctor told patient before sticking a scary-looking needle into his arm.

  • Seeing all the worms wriggling on the corpse made me squirm all over.

At a glance

Sits at B2 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
2
Citations
4
Synonyms
3

Deep Dive

verb

Extra meanings

  1. To twist in discomfort, especially from shame or embarrassment.

  2. To twist one's body with snakelike motions.

noun

Extra meaning

  1. A twisting, snakelike movement of the body.

More examples

In context

  • Yanni managed to squirm out of Skura's grip.

  • I recounted the embarrassing story in detail just to watch him squirm.

  • The prisoner managed to squirm out of the straitjacket.

Synonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

The little boy started to blank in his chair when he felt bored.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

verb

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.