v. Now colloq. or dial. Forms: 3–4 wigel(en, 4 wygle, -el, 7 wigle, 9 wiggle, (Sc. weegle). [Cognate with or a. (M)LG. wiggelen, MDu. wighelen (Du. wiggelen), frequentative f. wig- (cf. LG. wiggen, Norw. dial. vigge, WIG v.1). Cf. the parallel WAG v., WAGGLE v.
Some compare OE. wiccliende (Haupt’s Zeitschrift, IX. 459/6) glossing nutabundum, but this is prob. an error for cwiccliende (Napier, O. E. Glosses, I. 2234).]
1. intr. To move to and fro or from side to side irregularly and lightly, to waggle; to walk with such a movement, to stagger, reel, also to waddle (now dial.); to go or move sinuously, to wriggle. Also fig.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 214. Þe ȝiure glutun … wigeleð [Corpus MS. wigleð] ase uordrunken mon.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVIII. ix. (Add. MS. 27944). Centris is a serpente þat bendiþ noughte nouþer wigeleþ but holdeþ alway forþ right.
1611. [see wiggling ppl. adj. below].
1839. in F. W. Maitland, Leslie Stephen (1906), 25. He wished I would not read that kind of book that went wiggling from one subject to another.
1839. Longf., Hyperion, IV. ii. To pass the morning, to use his own quaint language, ‘in making dodging calls, and wiggling round among the ladies!’
1864. Latto, Tam. Bodkin, xiv. 133. I warselled an’ weegled, an’ kickit, an’ flang.
1901. H. Whitaker, in Munsey’s Mag., XXV. 320/1. He wiggled over the grass towards the concealed marksman.
1913. Mrs. Stratton-Porter, Laddie, vii. (1916), 122. Father sat and looked on and pulled his lower lip until his ears almost wiggled.
2. trans. To move (something) in this way; refl. = 1. Also fig.
1685. in Buccleuch MSS. (Hist. MSS. Comm.), I. 343. A bare shift or pretence to wigle myself out of danger.
c. 1850. ‘Dow Jr.,’ in Jerdan, Yankee Hum. (1853), 86. Wiggle yourselves, brethren, among the three, and make headway the best way you can.
1897. Violet Hunt, Unkist, Unkind! xii. He unhooked a Malay kris … and wiggled it about in the crack of the door.
Hence Wiggling vbl. sb. and ppl. a.; also Wiggle, sb. an act of ‘wiggling,’ a light wagging or wriggling movement (to get a wiggle on, U. S. slang, to hurry, bustle); adj. ‘wiggling,’ wagging swiftly and lightly; Wiggler, something that ‘wiggles’; Wiggletail, name for the larva of a gnat or mosquito.
1894. Educator (Philad.), Feb., 279. Every fleeting expression of their faces or *wiggle of their bodies.
1903. A. Adams, Log Cowboy, iv. Hasn’t the boss got a wiggle on himself to-day!
1904. Eliz. Robins, Magnetic North, xvii. 298. You got to get a wiggle on to-morrow.
1888. Doughty, Trav. Arabia Deserta, I. 324. Butting under the mothers’ teats, with their *wiggle tails.
1895. Outing (U.S.), XXVI. 375/2. We … took … a box of worms,… for without one squirming *wiggler the Madame would not have secured her bass.
1884. J. C. Harris, Nts. Uncle Remus, 172. Water too full of *wiggletails.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVIII. ix. (Bodl. MS.). Serpentes swymmeþ in water bi *wiglinge and foldinge of þe bodie [orig. per corporis inflexionem].
1894. Educator (Philad.), March. The ceaseless motion—the wiggling of the child.
1611. Cotgr., Serpentant..., wrigling, *wigling, crooking, winding.
1849. Alb. Smith, Pottleton Legacy (repr.), 51. One of those little wiggling dogs.
1895. Century Mag., Aug., 541/2. A small, wiggling fish.
