[app. imitative.]
1. intr. To wriggle or writhe: a. Of reptiles, etc. Chiefly U.S. and dial.
1691. Ray, S. & E. C. Words, 115. To Squirm, to move very nimbly about, after the manner of an Eel. It is spoken of an Eel.
1743. Catesby, Nat. Hist., II. 47. This harmless snake frequents the branches of Trees and very nimbly squirms among the leaves.
1828. Webster, s.v., Squirm … signifies to move as a worm.
1859. Hawthorne, Transform. (1878), 156. He should press his foot hard down upon the old serpent,… feeling him squirm mightily.
1885. H. C. McCook, Tenants Old Farm, 389. I have seen specimens … hanging by a thread and squirming, bending and snapping their bodies in the oddest ways.
fig. 1885. Pall Mall Gaz., 5 May, 4/1. If you want definite ideas [about vermin] that will squirm in your brain for a lifetime.
b. Of persons.
1756. J. Clubbe, Misc. Tracts, Physiognomy (1770), I. 24. Let them squirm about as much as they will, and struggle to support their heads from sinking.
1860. Holmes, Prof. Breakf.-t., 177. They find out the red-handed … undergraduate of bucolic antecedents as he squirms in his corner.
1879. G. Macdonald, Sir Gibbie, I. x. 154. At length he could … bear his thirst no longer, and, squirming round on the floor, crept softly towards the other end of the loft.
1890. Huxley, in 19th Cent., XXVII. 9. These poor little mortals who have not even the capacity to do anything but squirm and squall.
c. Of things.
1872. Routledge’s Ev. Boy’s Ann., 25/1. If there are a few trees near, and the long leafless twigs of one of them twitters and squirms against the window panes.
1888. Abp. Benson, in Life (1899), II. 220. Leighton said he found it vain to try to remember the turns and angles at which these branches squired about.
1905. Catherine I. Dodd, Vagrant Englishwoman, 78. The sausage squirmed, spluttered, and sang as the lively flames leapt around it.
2. To move, proceed, or go with a wriggling or writhing motion. Const. with advs. and preps., as along, forward, in, out, round, to, up.
1759. Compl. Lett.-writer (ed. 6), 224. Mrs. Langford … puddled herself into a minuet, and squirmed round and round the room.
1882. E. Ingersoll, in Century Mag., July, 348/1. If you insist upon going to the end of the route, you must squirm along on all fours for several rods at a time.
1883. C. F. Holder, in Harper’s Mag., Jan., 186/2. The shark squirmed out, thrashing about and snapping its jaws.
1891. C. Lloyd Morgan, Anim. Sketches, 235. Little eels … wriggling and squirming up a dark-green vertical wall.
3. fig. To be painfully affected or sharply touched by something; to writhe under reproof, sarcasm, or the like.
1804. [see the vbl. sb.].
1849. J. H. Green, in Knickerb. Mag., Jan., 64. The gambler ‘squirmed’ under the gospel truth; yet … he contrived to sit the sermon out.
1894. G. M. Fenn, In Alpine Valley, I. 36. I’ll write my Lord … such a letter as shall make him squirm.
4. trans. With out: To utter with a squirm.
1889. Gunter, That Frenchman! xxi. 286. Here Zamaroff squirms out: ‘Do I look like a man who would kill anything?’
Hence Squirming vbl. sb. and ppl. a.
1804. Balance, 25 Dec., 410 (Thornton). Some of the late victorious party have discovered *squirmings of resentment.
1858. O. W. Holmes, Aut. Breakf.-t. (1883), 96. A terrible squirming and scattering of the … population.
1887. Spectator, 15 Oct., 1378. The British will, after many delays and much squirming, ultimately pay the money.
1859. Hawthorne, Transform., xv. What a spirit is conveyed into the ugliness of this strong, writhing, *squirming dragon under the Archangel’s foot!
1865. Cornh. Mag., July, 46. When a great nation … is stirred and shaken … we all know what squirming, slimy things run forth helter-skelter.
1885. B. Phillips, in Harper’s Mag., Jan., 223/2. Fancy a lad of twelve having for a toy a squirming alligator some three feet long!
