(v. i.) To move uneasily one way and the other; to move irregularly, or by fits and starts.
(n.) Uneasiness; restlessness.
(n.) A general nervous restlessness, manifested by incessant changes of position; dysphoria.
Example Sentences:
(1) Updated at 5.11pm BST 5.07pm BST 68th over: Sri Lanka 251-9 (Herath 10, Pradeep 11) Plunkett sends one towards Herath's visage, and he fidgets it down without looking happy in the process, before Pradeep guides one over the slips and gets two.
(2) Hyperactive, and fidgeting behavior in children, is not a new syndrome, but has been present in children for centuries.
(3) Small wonder that the few fans left were sat fidgeting in silence, that the injured David Villa, Carlos Marchena, Rubén Baraja and Santi Cañizares had their heads in their hands up in the stands, or that the Youmus ultras turned their backs on the pitch.
(4) At one point, I fidget with my glasses so as to read the programme – Chloe swings round and throws me a stinging glance of reproach, like a seasoned concert-goer scolding a child – rather than the other way round.
(5) As one question follows another he fidgets, criss-crosses legs, examines my phone, broods, winces, tugs his hair, yanks it up, then down, then to the side, momentarily creating a mad professor effect which would be funny were it not for the death stare.
(6) The characters are always smiling, frowning, blushing, twitching, fidgeting, touching, kissing, bowing, sobbing, and deconstructing these signs in each other.
(7) Civil war still a bitter memory as El Salvador prepares to beatify Romero Read more Instead, the federal public defender who has taken on Montano’s case, James E Todd, bombarded the court with 44 pieces of evidence – mostly declassified diplomatic cables from the time – all of which he slowly read aloud for several hours as the prosecutor openly fidgeted and rolled his eyes.
(8) The propositus, a 57-year-old man, suffered from repeated, intense, asymmetric flexion jerks of the lower extremities, alternating with fidgeting and friction movements of the legs; all occurred at night prior to sleep and severely interfering with it.
(9) We have good evidence that certain behaviours – scratching or fidgeting – is an indicator of anxiety, and in certain zoos those behaviours increase in frequency as visitor numbers go up and they get more noisy.” According to Dr Emily Bethell, senior lecturer in primate behaviour at Liverpool John Moores University , the fact a captive gorilla was charging at the glass, banging on objects or throwing objects did not necessarily mean it was unhappy, since this was classic “display” behaviour designed to assert his dominance.
(10) "Quite the opposite," says Bird, his fidgeting kicking up a gear.
(11) What was actually being transmitted, for what now seems an eternity, was us: sitting, staring, frowning, fidgeting.
(12) Her anxiety was manifested by facial twitching, hand fidgeting, vocal tremor, loss of self-esteem, and depression.
(13) He fidgeted and moved constantly, tapping on his smartphone, buying arms, selling rockets, importing cars and arranging schooling for his many nephews and nieces.
(14) The most obvious evidence of lowered vigilance is motor restlessness (fidgeting and moving about, yawning and stretching, talkativeness, or a combination of these) to improve alertness when sitting or standing still or when involved in tasks requiring continuous mental performance.
(15) Ectomesenchyme affected by the white gene stimulated optic-vesicle growth, to some extent suppressing the effect of the fidget gene.
(16) Urban and electronica have thrown up endless new sub-genres: there was crunk and hyphy in the US, while in Britain you could take your pick from dubstep, grime, fidget house, purple wow, sublow, 8-bar or eski-beat.
(17) Mourinho fidgeted frustratedly in his technical area, his mood darkened when Ryan Bennett swung his leg to challenge Hazard in the area with the Belgian leaping to avoid the limb and tumbling to the turf as a result.
(18) After much fidgeting and prevarication, Cain eventually claimed he would have done a better job than the president.
(19) And so I sat fidgeting, scrawling on the newspapers, peering and shuffling.
(20) They had Nike shopping bags and new jeans, and the smuggler was – as usual – fidgeting with his phone.
Squirm
Definition:
(v. i.) To twist about briskly with contor/ions like an eel or a worm; to wriggle; to writhe.
Example Sentences:
(1) The talk coming from senior Tories – at least some of whom have the grace to squirm when questioned on this topic – suggesting that it's all terribly complicated, that it was a long time ago and that even SS members were, in some ways, themselves victims, is uncomfortably close to the kind of prattle we used to hear from those we called Holocaust revisionists.
(2) He cut in and provided a pass for Sneijder, whose shot squirmed wide off Rodríguez; he then clipped a ball in that just evaded Sneijder; and soon after that he appealed for another penalty.
(3) And yet for all his anti-establishment credentials, Mr Galloway is as practised as any of his New Labour enemies at squirming away from awkward questions.
(4) If the thought of eating fermented cabbage makes you squirm, then perhaps you're not ready for it – but plenty of others are.
(5) The Spurs were missing simple shots but insidiously squirmed their way back into the game, with James returning to Earth and Leonard in fine shooting form.
(6) But it squirms about conceding them to people it does not approve of.
(7) [Parkinson's] makes me squirm and it makes my pants ride up so my socks are showing and my shoes fall off and I can't get the food up to my mouth when I want to."
(8) President Andrzej Duda and Beata Szydło, the prime minister, take their orders from him and squirm for his approval.
(9) He could only squirm in the stands as Robbie Keane lofted the clearest chance of the game into the face of Mark Schwarzer, who also foiled Kuyt and Torres.
(10) Bodies squirmed with the embarrassment of eye contact and personal honesty.
(11) But the wording was left deliberately ambiguous and before the ink was dry on the statement, senior German officials, being grilled in Brussels by gobsmacked German journalists, were squirming and heavily qualifying the promise to shore up banks directly.
(12) In the last photos of her, taken barely 10 minutes before the Russian bombs landed, she shows off a new bracelet and freshly painted nails with glee, then squeezes a kiss from her squirming baby sister.
(13) For Cahun was a writer, first and foremost – and no amount of artistic squirming could change that.
(14) The Friday afternoon audience for the film of John Green’s The Fault In Our Stars was squirming with more anticipation than any audience I’ve seen since the first screening of Endless Love in July 1981.
(15) From the rebound, Lennon's shot deflected off Colback, hit the post and squirmed to safety.
(16) But corporations, which thrive on their sense of power and control, hate nothing more than having to say sorry unless they are forced to do so because they are squirming on the end of a hook for doing something particularly reprehensible.
(17) With five minutes remaining Aleksandar Kolarov took aim from outside the area and hit the attempt straight at Jonathan Bond, only for the ball to squirm under the goalkeeper and into the net.
(18) A Russia free-kick from just inside the halfway line lands evades a Spanish defender and land at Pavlychenko's feet about eight yards out, but he squirms his shot just wide.
(19) Team Miliband squirms a bit at this, not entirely sure if it might not be so.
(20) Branson has even smoked weed with Sam, a revelation that continues to make his son squirm.