squiggle
Appearance
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Probably a blend of squirm + wiggle.[1]
Pronunciation
[edit]- IPA(key): /ˈskwɪɡl̩/
Audio (Southern England): (file) - Rhymes: -ɪɡəl
Noun
[edit]squiggle (plural squiggles)
- A short twisting or wiggling line or mark.
- 1939, Flora Thompson, Lark Rise:
- Even the cold ashes where a gipsy's fire had been sent little squiggles of fear down Laura's spine, for how could she know that they were not still lurking near with designs upon her own person?
- (informal) Synonym of tilde.
- An illegible scrawl.
Translations
[edit]a short twisting or wiggling line or mark
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tilde — see tilde
an illegible scrawl
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Verb
[edit]squiggle (third-person singular simple present squiggles, present participle squiggling, simple past and past participle squiggled) (transitive, intransitive)
- To wriggle or squirm.
- 1980 August 30, Tim Walton, “Queer Rights Strategy Argued in Quirky Dictionary”, in Gay Community News, volume 8, number 6, page 9:
- When I was coming of age in the '60s, I squirmed and squiggled not to be pinned down by that great transfixer "the homosexual" which American psychiatry had made into such a weighty implement.
- To make a squiggle.
- To write illegibly.
Translations
[edit]to write (something) illegibly
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Derived terms
[edit]References
[edit]- “squiggle”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
- ^ Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “squiggle”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
Anagrams
[edit]Categories:
- English blends
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio pronunciation
- Rhymes:English/ɪɡəl
- Rhymes:English/ɪɡəl/2 syllables
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English terms with quotations
- English informal terms
- English verbs
- English transitive verbs
- English intransitive verbs