asquirm

English

Etymology

From a- +‎ squirm.

Adjective

asquirm (comparative more asquirm, superlative most asquirm)

1. Squirming.
   • 1866, William Dean Howells, chapter 18, in Venetian Life‎^[1], New York: Hurd and Houghton, published 1867, page 300:

     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.

   • 1972, John Irving, chapter 32, in The Water-Method Man‎^[2], New York: Pocket Books, published 1978, page 308:

     […] 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.

   • 1990, Arthur Mayse, chapter 12, in Handliner’s Island‎^[3], Madeira Park, BC: Harbour Publishing, page 125:

     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.

   • 2008, Margo Lanagan, chapter 3, in Tender Morsels‎^[4], New York: Random House, published 2011, page 66:

     […] this child, unlike the first, was easily stirred to rages. The slightest discomfort set her asquirm […]

2. Covered or filled (with something squirming).
   • 1892, Thomas De Witt Talmage, chapter 6, in From the Pyramids to the Acropolis‎^[5], Philadelphia: Historical Publishing Company, page 161:

     an aquarium all asquirm with trout and gold fish

   • 1952, Edna Ferber, chapter 20, in Giant‎^[6], Garden City, NY: Doubleday, page 337:

     The little dancing floor in the center of the dining room suddenly was asquirm with posturing figures in mantillas and silks and boleros.

   • 1964, Willard M. Wallace, chapter 5, in Appeal to Arms‎^[7], Chicago: Quadrangle Books, page 58:

     […] 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 […]

   • 1972, Dick Perry, chapter 3, in One Way to Write Your Novel‎^[8], Cincinnati, OH: Writer’s Digest, page 14:

     If, then, your idea is large and sweeping, asquirm with plots sub and counter […]

Anagrams

• Marquis, marquis