How to Use squirm in a Sentence

squirm

verb
  • The frog squirmed out of his hands.
  • The gory details of the story had me squirming in my seat.
  • He tried to hold onto her but she squirmed free.
  • The children squirmed with delight.
  • The baby squirmed a lot when I tried to hold him.
  • She squirmed under her father's angry stare.
  • There will be no squirming tonight.
    — Addie Citchens, New Yorker, 8 Mar. 2026
  • The boy is screaming, squirming.
    — Kansas City Star, 22 May 2026
  • The snakes continue squirming in his grasp, and one bites him.
    — Marina Watts, Entertainment Weekly, 26 May 2026
  • No sound effect makes people squirm quite like grinding teeth.
    — William Earl, Variety, 2 Jan. 2026
  • In this case, the device was able to suck in part of the worm's tail and drag it out—still squirming.
    — Beth Mole, ArsTechnica, 13 Aug. 2025
  • In here, children squirm over parents’ laps as old men sip strong tea to punctuate intense exchanges.
    — Kurt Johnson, Condé Nast Traveler, 24 Sep. 2024
  • Did the answers — and unknowns — make people hesitate and squirm?
    — Shaun McKinnon, AZCentral.com, 9 Mar. 2026
  • The player who was hit by the cart immediately grabbed his thigh and knee area while squirming in pain on the ground.
    — Mark Harris Outkick, FOXNews.com, 1 June 2026
  • Like him, Rue is squirming under Laurie’s thumb, anxious to get out.
    — Rafaela Bassili, Vulture, 13 Apr. 2026
  • In a horror movie, the sight of a leg being broken and the bone sticking out might be squirm-inducing but not out of bonds.
    — Brian Truitt, USA Today, 17 Sep. 2025
  • There is another issue, of course, squirming away in the soft flesh of maternity leave.
    — Nell Frizzell, Vogue, 13 Jan. 2026
  • With the contact patch sliding and squirming, the brakes had less to work with—and the car took just enough extra distance to end in an impact.
    — Michael Harley, Forbes.com, 30 June 2026
  • Hungry birds looking for dozens of squirming caterpillars a day to feed their young can easily find the insects on oak trees.
    — Sophie Hartley, IndyStar, 29 Oct. 2025
  • If the goal is to make audiences squirm, Levinson certainly succeeds.
    — Katie Campione, Deadline, 12 Apr. 2026
  • Some circles encourage silence, not as a time to squirm, but as the most generative time for listening.
    — Ginny Whitelaw, Forbes.com, 1 June 2026
  • The veterans, of course, are terrific with one later episode set on a plane that finds Mulligan in top squirming form.
    — Randy Myers, Mercury News, 16 Apr. 2026
  • With net in hand, the future microbial geochemist dredged up seaweed and mud squirming with snails, crab larvae and other small invertebrates.
    — Laura Poppick, Quanta Magazine, 20 Aug. 2025
  • Martin is a tough, no-nonsense, Logan Roy kind of patriarch, inclined to making his children squirm.
    — Rafaela Bassili, Vulture, 13 Nov. 2025
  • Distracting from the void at its core are the extremely gory kills, splashed with pixelized blood and guts that are indeed successful in making an audience squirm.
    — Katie Walsh, Boston Herald, 27 Feb. 2026
  • His Japanese guest, usually a paragon of diplomatic cool, visibly squirmed.
    — Andreas Kluth, Twin Cities, 14 Apr. 2026
  • But as soon as my squirming newborn was placed on my chest, I was overcome by the desire not to keep these works to myself, but to share my love of literature with my baby.
    — Ilana Kurshan, The Atlantic, 24 Aug. 2025
  • The open section of their session lasted for 15 minutes — and Howe will have squirmed through every second — but there were laughs amid the stretches and shuttle runs.
    — George Caulkin, New York Times, 1 Oct. 2025
  • Substitute Nikolas Nartey completed the scoring in stoppage time with another deflected shot that squirmed in off the far post.
    — ABC News, 1 Mar. 2026
  • Flic’s jealousy over Minna’s swifter evolution in these matters is sharply rendered, all its squirming need and embarrassment and confusion.
    — Richard Lawson, HollywoodReporter, 3 Sep. 2019

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'squirm.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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