Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use squirm in a sentence

29 example sentences · verb, noun

Squirm means to twist one's body with snakelike motions. Example: “The prisoner managed to squirm out of the straitjacket.”

Examples of squirm by meaning

verbTo twist one's body with snakelike motions.

  • The prisoner managed to squirm out of the straitjacket.
  • They clambered, squirmed and wriggled to the deck, forcing us steadily backward, though we emptied our pistols into them.1918 September–November, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “The Land That Time Forgot”, in The Blue Book Magazine, Chicago, Ill.: Story-press Corp....
  • The Dutchman then missed a retaken second spot-kick, before the Trotters hit back when Daniel Sturridge's shot squirmed under Heurelho Gomes.2011 February 5, Michael Kevin Darling, “Tottenham 2 - 1 Bolton”, in BBC

verbTo twist in discomfort, especially from shame or embarrassment.

  • I recounted the embarrassing story in detail just to watch him squirm.
  • A tough question that made the press office squirm.

More sentences with squirm

  • The sight of the squirming mass of maggots left me disgusted.From the entry disgusted
  • The class squirmed and fidgeted in the uncomfortable new chairs.From the entry uncomfortable
  • It had certainly given her enough squirming, revulsive qualms, before she’d done it.2021, Arkady Martine, A Desolation Called Peace, Tor, page 29. From the entry revulsive
  • I squirmed away and shoved the Corpsman off me before he could insert it.2017, Jason Delgado, Chris Martin, Bounty Hunter 4/3: From the Bronx to Marine Scout Sniper, page 109. From the entry silver bullet
  • Another, larger borogove squirmed in through the hole in the fabric.2006, David Brown, Kara Willey, The Worlds of Naughtenny Moore, →ISBN. From the entry borogove
  • "Although I squirm a little — we are showing more backal nudity."1977, New Times. From the entry backal
  • At dinner the other evening I made a really truly growly belted earl squirm.1927 November 9, Punch, or The London Charivari, London: […] [T]he Office, […], page 512, columns 2–3. From the entry honey
  • Twice the angler raised the squirming bait; but each time minus the scaly victim.1916, Everybody's magazine. From the entry fishly
  • Here's the frame where my too-open posture made them squirm.2016, Steven Amsterdam, The Easy Way Out, Quercus, →ISBN. From the entry Zapruderian
  • All this talk of undying love and childbearing squirms in my stomach like a worm that demands feeding.2013, David Gilman, Master of War. From the entry marriage
  • A normal feller going about his business will give ya the once over without a squirm, but not this joker.2012, G. S. Manson, chapter 10, in Coorparoo Blues & the Irish Fandango, Portland, Or.: Verse Chorus Press, →ISBN, page 71. From the entry fizgig
  • Such kind of stimuli usually results in laugher and squirming.2009 August 18-21, Alena Neviarouskaya, Dzmitry Tsetserukou, Helmut Prendinger, Naoki Kawakami, Susumu Tachi & Mitsuru Ishizuka, "Emerging…. From the entry gargalesis
  • Mary Ruth was rutsching around, squirming to beat the band.2004, Beverly Lewis, The Sacrifice, Bethany House Publishers, →ISBN. From the entry rutsch
  • These "Doghole” coves were "not much bigger than a hole a dog might crawl into, squirm around and crawl out again."1987, Going Places, page 30. From the entry doghole
  • Marcelle, Clothilde, Virginie, bored and scornful, passed slowly round, squirming and wriggling in the time-honoured fashion of mannequins.1928, Agatha Christie, The Mystery of the Blue Train. From the entry mannequin
  • "That'll give the blank, blank, blank of a blank some idea of the fun we'll have watching him squirm bimeby!"1927, Sinclair Lewis, chapter 29, in Elmer Gantry. From the entry bimeby
  • It was a leather-lunged, red-faced, squirming little mite.1918, B. M. Bower, chapter 11, in Cabin Fever. From the entry leather-lunged
  • They were just squirming and wriggling there.1912, Jack London, chapter 8, in Smoke Bellew, New York: Grosset & Dunlap, page 201. From the entry acrawl
  • I squirmed against the seat belt.2014, Annie Cardi, The Chance You Won't Return, Candlewick Press, →ISBN, page 161. From the entry automobilery
  • And the common people pull their forelock harder and squirm lower the higher the rent a man pays per quarter for his house.1913, Henry Lawson, “Triangles of Life”, in Triangles of Life and Other Stories. From the entry pull one's forelock
  • Colebrook kept on cautiously, squirming his long body in sinuous waves like a lizard's through the grass, and was soon lost to us.1900, Grant Allen, Arthur Conan Doyle, chapter VIII, in Hilda Wade. From the entry lithe
  • The sight of this king spider dangling and squirming in midair would have been enough to make an arachnophobiac die immediately of a stroke or faint dead away.2012 March 22, Peter Aven, Road Stories: The Experiences of a Traveling Musician, Xlibris Corporation, →ISBN, page 127. From the entry arachnophobiac
  • Instead, she used a rejective wriggle to slither out of her frock, and there stood squirming, putting a shield of arms before her breasts and belly.1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 197. From the entry unrobe
  • He saw a gnarled old woman vigorously scrubbing a very dirty boy, who squirmed under the rough usage and screwed up his eyes and mouth to keep out the soap.1910, The Poster, Poster Advertising Association, Notable Poster Illustrations, page 17. From the entry come

Meaning of squirm

  1. verb To twist one's body with snakelike motions.
  2. verb To twist in discomfort, especially from shame or embarrassment.
  3. verb To evade a question, an interviewer etc.

Full definition of squirm

Questions about squirm in a sentence

How do you use squirm in a sentence?
Squirm is used as a verb and noun. For example: “The prisoner managed to squirm out of the straitjacket.”
What is a short sentence with squirm?
“I squirmed against the seat belt.”
What does squirm mean?
Squirm means to twist one's body with snakelike motions.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: squirm (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use squirm in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/squirm. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.