Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- intransitive verb To make twisting bodily movements, as in pain or struggle.
- intransitive verb To move with a twisting or contorted motion.
- intransitive verb To suffer emotional or physical distress, as from embarrassment or anguish.
- intransitive verb To cause to twist or squirm; contort.
- noun The act or an instance of writhing.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A contortion of form or features, as from pain or other emotion; an act of writhing.
- noun The band of a fagot.
- To turn and twist about; twist out of shape or position; wrench; contort.
- To wrest perversely; wrest; pervert.
- To wrench; wring; extort.
- To move or stir in a twisting or tortuous manner; twist about, as from pain, distress, or stimulation.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- transitive verb To twist; to turn; now, usually, to twist or turn so as to distort; to wring.
- transitive verb To wrest; to distort; to pervert.
- transitive verb rare To extort; to wring; to wrest.
- intransitive verb To twist or contort the body; to be distorted. Also used figuratively.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb transitive To
twist , towring (something). - verb transitive To
contort (a part of the body). - verb intransitive To
twist orcontort thebody ; to be distorted. - noun knot theory The number of
negative crossings subtracted from the number ofpositive crossings in aknot
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb to move in a twisting or contorted motion, (especially when struggling)
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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With a thin writhe of a smile, Collins investigated the insides of her clenched hands to make sure that the hooks were connected.
CHAPTER XXV 2010
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With a thin writhe of a smile, Collins investigated the insides of her clenched hands to make sure that the hooks were connected.
Chapter 25 1917
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Rickie had the projector turned on and pointed toward the living room wall, watched the python writhe on the ground.
Miracles, Inc. T.J. Forrester 2011
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I haven't blogged lately because I've been so sick all I can do is sleep, throw up, writhe in pain or blow my nose and I pretty much don't want to do anything more complex than play Peggle.
Archive 2009-04-01 zombietron 2009
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Yoga used to make a Christian nation writhe; now it has become an embodiment of the country's religious and social elasticity.
Leigh E. Schmidt: The History Of Yoga And Religion In America Leigh E. Schmidt 2011
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Here we have an near-omnipotent, near-invulnerable, time-traveling walking knife drawer that - if it doesn't turn you into sushi while dodging every weapon that you throw at it - takes you home so it can impale you alive in its front yard where you get to writhe in agony forever while it looks on like the silent mega-badass it is.
MIND MELD: What Are The Coolest Robots in Science Fiction? 2010
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In studying a 13th-century scroll where nine scaly dragons writhe through a sepia mist, Mr. Li focused on a spot near the center where the brume twists into a spiral.
How to Talk Back to a Chinese Master Lee Lawrence 2011
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I haven't blogged lately because I've been so sick all I can do is sleep, throw up, writhe in pain or blow my nose and I pretty much don't want to do anything more complex than play Peggle.
Dear World zombietron 2009
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The maggots, starved for oxygen, writhe and jump in the bag, creating a "pitter-patter" sound.
Boing Boing 2009
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The badger will squeal and writhe around, clawing the Man mercilessly as the Man begins to intensify the beating and his repetition.
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