Nominal Forms
Infinitive: to squirm
Participle: squirmed
Gerund: squirming
Cognates
-
Indicative
Present
| I | squirm |
| you | squirm |
| he;she;it | squirms |
| we | squirm |
| you | squirm |
| they | squirm |
Perfect
| I | have squirmed |
| you | have squirmed |
| he;she;it | has squirmed |
| we | have squirmed |
| you | have squirmed |
| they | have squirmed |
Past
| I | squirmed |
| you | squirmed |
| he;she;it | squirmed |
| we | squirmed |
| you | squirmed |
| they | squirmed |
Pluperfect
| I | had squirmed |
| you | had squirmed |
| he;she;it | had squirmed |
| we | had squirmed |
| you | had squirmed |
| they | had squirmed |
Future
| I | will squirm |
| you | will squirm |
| he;she;it | will squirm |
| we | will squirm |
| you | will squirm |
| they | will squirm |
Future Perfect
| I | will have squirmed |
| you | will have squirmed |
| he;she;it | will have squirmed |
| we | will have squirmed |
| you | will have squirmed |
| they | will have squirmed |
Subjunctive
Present
| I | squirm |
| you | squirm |
| he;she;it | squirm |
| we | squirm |
| you | squirm |
| they | squirm |
Perfect
| I | have squirmed |
| you | have squirmed |
| he;she;it | have squirmed |
| we | have squirmed |
| you | have squirmed |
| they | have squirmed |
Imperfect
| I | squirmed |
| you | squirmed |
| he;she;it | squirmed |
| we | squirmed |
| you | squirmed |
| they | squirmed |
Pluperfect
| I | had squirmed |
| you | had squirmed |
| he;she;it | had squirmed |
| we | had squirmed |
| you | had squirmed |
| they | had squirmed |
Conditional
Present
| I | would squirm |
| you | would squirm |
| he;she;it | would squirm |
| we | would squirm |
| you | would squirm |
| they | would squirm |
Perfect
| I | would have squirmed |
| you | would have squirmed |
| he;she;it | would have squirmed |
| we | would have squirmed |
| you | would have squirmed |
| they | would have squirmed |
Imperative
| you | squirm |
| we | Let's squirm |
| you | squirm |
Verbs conjugated like 'squirm'
abandon,
abduct,
abear,
aberr,
abject,
abord,
abort,
abound,
abraid,
abray,
abrook,
abscind,
abscond,
absist,
absorb,
abstain,
abstract,
accend,
accent,
accept, etc. (List truncated at 20 verbs)
Verbs similar to 'squirm'
squir,
squire,
squirr,
squirt,
esquire,
quire,
quirk,
quirl,
quirt,
square,
Synonyms & Antonyms
Additional Information
Phrasal Verbs
Etymology
First recorded 1690's, originally used of eels; cognate with Scots squimmer (“to wriggle, squirm”). Of uncertain origin. Compare dialectal quirm, whirm (“to disappear quickly, vanish suddenly and mysteriously”), Norwegian kverva (“to turn around, take away, remove, shrink”), from Old Norse hverfa (“to turn, vanish”). Alternatively, perhaps imitative or related to worm (in the sense of writhing movement) or swarm.
Sample Sentences
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The prisoner managed to squirm out of the straitjacket.
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[…] around us there had sprung up a perfect bedlam of screams and hisses and a seething caldron of hideous reptiles, devoid of fear and filled only with hunger and with rage. They clambered, squirmed and wriggled to the deck, forcing us steadily backward, though we emptied our pistols into them. [1918 September–November, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “The Land That Time Forgot”, in The Blue Book Magazine, Chicago, Ill.: Story-press Corp., →OCLC; republished as chapter IV, in Hugo Gernsback, editor, Amazing Stories, (please specify |part=I to III), New York, N.Y.: Experimenter Publishing, 1927, →OCLC:]
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"Throw it away, dear, do," she said, as they got into the road; but Jacob squirmed away from her […] [1922 October 26, Virginia Woolf, chapter 1, in Jacob’s Room, Richmond, London: […] Leonard & Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth Press, →OCLC; republished London: The Hogarth Press, 1960, →OCLC:]
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The Dutchman then missed a retaken second spot-kick, before the Trotters hit back when Daniel Sturridge's shot squirmed under Heurelho Gomes. [2011 February 5, Michael Kevin Darling, “Tottenham 2 - 1 Bolton”, in BBC:]
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I recounted the embarrassing story in detail just to watch him squirm.
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A tough question that made the press office squirm.
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MARIGOLD: Should I tell them I know?
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DORA: Nah, let ’em squirm. Let’s go get some pie. [2010, Jeph Jacques, Questionable Content 1686: Twist in the Wind:]