Wriggle vs Flail - What's the difference?
wriggle | flail |
To twist one's body to and fro with short, writhing motions; to squirm.
* Jonathan Swift
* {{quote-book
, year=1972
, author=Carlos Castañeda
, title=The teachings of Don Juan: a Yaqui way of knowledge
, page=78
To cause to or make something wriggle.
A tool used for threshing, consisting of a long handle with a shorter stick attached with a short piece of chain, thong or similar material.
A weapon which has the (usually spherical) striking part attached to the handle with a flexible joint such as a chain.
His shadowy flail hath threshed the corn
That ten day-labourers could not end; * 1816 — *: Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail,
Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher's flail * 1842 — *: On him alone the curse of Cain
Fell, like a flail on the garnered grain,
And struck him to the earth! * 1879 — , ch V *: If the farmer must use the spade because he has not capital enough for a plough, the sickle instead of the reaping machine, the flail instead of the thresher... To beat using a flail or similar implement.
To wave or swing vigorously
*
* 1937 , ,
To thresh.
To move like a flail.
In lang=en terms the difference between wriggle and flail
is that wriggle is to cause to or make something wriggle while flail is to move like a flail.As verbs the difference between wriggle and flail
is that wriggle is to twist one's body to and fro with short, writhing motions; to squirm while flail is to beat using a flail or similar implement.As nouns the difference between wriggle and flail
is that wriggle is a wriggling movement while flail is a tool used for threshing, consisting of a long handle with a shorter stick attached with a short piece of chain, thong or similar material.wriggle
English
Verb
(wriggl)- Teachers often lose their patience when children wriggle in their seats.
- Both he and successors would often wriggle in their seats, as long as the cushion lasted.
citation, passage=I tried to ease my grip, but my hands were sweating so profusely that the lizards began to wriggle out of them.}}
- He was sitting on the lawn, wriggling his toes in the grass.
Derived terms
* wriggler * wrigglyAnagrams
*flail
English
Noun
(en noun)Quotations
* 1631 — *: When in one night, ere glimpse of morn,His shadowy flail hath threshed the corn
That ten day-labourers could not end; * 1816 — *: Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail,
Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher's flail * 1842 — *: On him alone the curse of Cain
Fell, like a flail on the garnered grain,
And struck him to the earth! * 1879 — , ch V *: If the farmer must use the spade because he has not capital enough for a plough, the sickle instead of the reaping machine, the flail instead of the thresher...
Coordinate terms
*(weapon) nunchakuVerb
(en verb)- He stopped in his tracks – then, flailing his arms wildly in the air, began to stagger backwards.
- He was flailing wildly, but didn't land a blow.