wriggle, wrigle

i. & t. [A freq. from wrig (q. v.); cf. Dut. wriggelen = to wriggle; freq. from wrikken = to stir or move to and fro; Dan. vrikke = to wriggle; Sw. vricha =to turn to and fro.] A. Intransitive : 1. Lit .: To turn, twist, or move the body to and fro with short motions like a worm or an eel; to move with writhing contortions or twistings of the body. "The wriggling fry soon fill the creeks around." Cowper: Progre of Error, 480. 2. Fig .: To proceed in a mean, groveling, or despicable manner; to gain one's end by paltry shifts or schemes; to make way by contemptible artifice or contrivance. "An attempt to use the technicalities of the law to wriggle out of his agreement."- Field, Feb. 19, 1887. B. Transitive : 1. To put into a wriggling motion; to introduce by writhing or twisting. "A slim, thin-gutted fox made a hard shift to wriggle his body into a hen-roost." - L'Estrange . 2. To effect by wriggling. "To wriggle his way between the rows."-London Daily Telegraph. *wriggle, a. [WRIGGLE, v.] Pliant, flexible. "My ragged rontes all shiver and shake Thy wont in the wind wagg their wriggle tails, Perke as a peacock, but now it avails." Spenser : Shepherd's Calendar; February .