[f. WRIGGLE v. + -ER1.]
1. One who or that which wriggles; esp. a wriggling fish, animalcule, etc.
1674. N. Fairfax, Bulk & Selv., Ep. Ded. The Fryes of Wrigglers … peep out of their Graves and Dungeons.
1694. Motteux, Rabelais, V. Progn. v. 237. Drabs, Trulls, Light-skirts, Wrigglers, Misses.
a. 1825. Forby, Voc. E. Anglia, II. 381. Wrigglers, small fish, of which commoner names are sand-eels or lance-fish.
1896. in Advance (Chicago) 18 June, 897/2. To make the little wriggler [= a child] sit still.
1914. Melbourne Argus, 17 March, 13. Mosquitoes … in the larval state … are known as wrigglers.
2. fig. One who makes his way by subtle, ingratiating or underhand means.
1631. A. Wilson, Swisser, II. i. 163. To obserue the tyme, yee wriglers. There is an ytching height that all do ayme at, But diuers wayes to come to ’t.
1785. Cowper, Tiroc., 432. Providence,… In spite of all the wrigglers into place, Still keeps a seat or two for worth and grace.
3. (See quot.)
1900. Daily Mail, 31 Oct. Wrigglers are engravers who devote their working hours to the tracing of those zig-zag lines which are so often a feature of cheap Britannia metal teapots.
