Word
wiggle
Phoneticswig·gle
US/ˈwɪɡəɫ/
UK/wˈɪɡəl/
Definitions
01to move side to side
v. to move something with small, quick movements from side to side or up and down.
v. to move with small, irregular, back-and-forth or side-to-side motions. Often used both transitively and intransitively.
“The little boy wiggled his loose tooth with his tongue to see if it would fall out.”
“She wiggled her toes in the warm sand, enjoying the sensation of the sun on her skin after a long winter.”
Usage
The verb can be used with an object (wiggle your toes) or without one (the tooth wiggled).
02a small movement
n. a small, quick movement from side to side.
n. a single act of wiggling; a rapid, often irregular movement in alternating opposite directions.
“With a little wiggle, the key finally turned in the old rusty lock.”
“The puppy gave a happy wiggle of its entire body when its owner finally returned home from work.”
Etymology
From Middle English wiglen, probably from Middle Dutch wigelen (“to wiggle”) and perhaps Middle Low German wigelen, frequentative of wiegen (“to rock”), from wiege (“cradle”). See wain, and Dutch wieg (“cradle”). Cognate to Dutch wiggelen (“to wiggle”), Low German wiggeln (“to wiggle”).
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Idioms
get a wiggle on — To hurry up.