squiggle
English
Etymology
Probably a blend of squirm + wiggle.[1]
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈskwɪɡl̩/
Audio (Southern England): (file) - Rhymes: -ɪɡəl
Noun
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
a short twisting or wiggling line or mark
|
tilde — see tilde
an illegible scrawl
Verb
squiggle (third-person singular simple present squiggles, present participle squiggling, simple past and past participle squiggled) (ambitransitive)
- 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
to write (something) illegibly
|
Derived terms
References
- “squiggle”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
- ^ Douglas Harper (2001–2025) “squiggle”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.