Dictionary

asquirm en · ADJ

Etymology

From a- + squirm.

Meanings

1. Squirming.
   • […] he sat with his trousers rolled up to the knees and his blue-white city toes asquirm in the cleanest muck he’d ever felt. 1972, John Irving, chapter 32, in The Water-Method Man, New York: Pocket Books, published 1978, page 308:
   • […] this child, unlike the first, was easily stirred to rages. The slightest discomfort set her asquirm […] 2008, Margo Lanagan, chapter 3, in Tender Morsels, New York: Random House, published 2011, page 66:
   • From where they sat on the rowing thwarts, they made blind passes with their herring rakes, bringing them up with silver asquirm on each needle-sharp tooth. 1990, Arthur Mayse, chapter 12, in Handliner’s Island, Madeira Park, BC: Harbour Publishing, page 125:
   • But a fish-market, even at Rialto […] is only a fish-market after all: it is wet and slimy under foot, and the innumerable gigantic eels, writhing everywhere, set the soul asquirm, and soon-sated curiosity slides willingly away. 1866, William Dean Howells, chapter 18, in Venetian Life, New York: Hurd and Houghton, published 1867, page 300:
2. Covered or filled (with something squirming).
   • The little dancing floor in the center of the dining room suddenly was asquirm with posturing figures in mantillas and silks and boleros. 1952, Edna Ferber, chapter 20, in Giant, Garden City, NY: Doubleday, page 337:
   • If, then, your idea is large and sweeping, asquirm with plots sub and counter […] 1972, Dick Perry, chapter 3, in One Way to Write Your Novel, Cincinnati, OH: Writer’s Digest, page 14:
   • an aquarium all asquirm with trout and gold fish 1892, Thomas De Witt Talmage, chapter 6, in From the Pyramids to the Acropolis, Philadelphia: Historical Publishing Company, page 161:
   • […] such supplies as did arrive were as often as not scarcely fit to eat, the bread moldy, the biscuit asquirm with weevils, the butter rancid […] 1964, Willard M. Wallace, chapter 5, in Appeal to Arms, Chicago: Quadrangle Books, page 58:

Forms