To twist about like a snake.

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1804.  Some of the late victorious party in Massachusetts have discovered squirmings of resentment on this subject—thinking their successful atchievement (passed over, as it has been, without a general Jubilee) is held much cheaper abroad than they had expected.—The Balance, Dec. 25, p. 410/2.

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1820.  Who of us has not squirmed and squeezed to avoid labour as a curse?—Mass. Spy, Aug. 23: from the Connecticut Courant.

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1839.  That denial was by a squirming from under the responsibility of answering in an honorable way the charge of being guilty of falsehood.—See Congressional Globe, March 4, p. 211.

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1839.  Did you ever see anything which came from that quarter squirm afore a big headed or bullying varmint?—Havana (N.Y.) Republican, July 10.

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1839.  My stars and garters, if [the whale] didn’t give sich a squirm, and roll’d over and over.—Major Jackon board a whaler.—Id., Aug. 21.

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1845.  We care no more for the report than to show up the squirming of ungodly men.—Nauvoo Neighbor, Feb. 12.

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1846.  It was now the minister’s turn to squirm.—Knick. Mag., xxviii. 273 (Sept.).

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1847.  Come along, my fine fellow, and give up squirming.—Charles F. Briggs, ‘Tom Pepper,’ p. 78.

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1848.  The lobster was ‘fresh caught’ (it so chanced) and proved very unruly—squirming and writhing about.—Durivage and Burnham, ‘Stray Subjects,’ p. 57.

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1849.  The gambler ‘squirmed’ under the gospel truth; yet uneasy as he was, he contrived to sit the sermon out.—J. H. Green, in Knick. Mag., xxxiii. 64 (Jan.).

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1852.  

        And from the boys a stifled shout
  Rung through the cheerless room,
And much the urchins squirmed about
  In thinking of his doom.
Yale Lit. Mag., xvii. 233 (April).    

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1855.  How I did wince, and squirm, and wiggle, and joggle, and hang on like a good boy!—Knick. Mag., xlv. 306 (March).

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1857.  He squirmed on his back toward the door: ground the dirt into the garment: tore it beside: ‘came to:’ took it off: apologized: said he was sorry: and added, that that was the first fit they had ever had in that store, any how.—Id., l. 424 (Oct.).

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1858.  Touch a dollar of theirs, and they will squirm.—Brigham Young, Jan. 17: ‘Journal of Discourses,’ vi. 175.

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1859.  This intense valor [on the part of Mr. Seward] shrinks and squirms. It does not come up to the point.—Mr. Toombs of Georgia in the U.S. Senate, Feb. 25: Cong. Globe, p. 1356.

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1862.  

        Ef Jon’than don’t squirm, with sech helps to assist him,
I give up my faith in the free-suffrage system.
Lowell, ‘Biglow Papers,’ 2nd Series, No. 5.    

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1867.  

        Good fourth-proof brimstone, that ’ll make ’em squirm,—
I leave it to the Headman of the Firm.
Lowell, ‘Fitz-Adam’s Story’: Atlantic Monthly, January.    

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