Get a wriggle on

Posted by Lewis on October 03, 2003

In Reply to: Get a wriggle on posted by Lotg on October 03, 2003

: To tell someone to get a wriggle on is to tell them to get a move on, hurry up, etc. But why wriggle? How can that speed things up? Anyone know how this started?

to 'wriggle' is to squirm or to make progress forward by deviating from the straight course by going left and right in succession. for example if somebody was caving and crawling through a confined space "getting a wriggle on" would get them through quicker.

Also the human bottom "wiggles" when walking quickly - somebody could quite properly say "get a wiggle on" meaning to go from normal walking pace to something faster.
Either makes sense.

there is another good word for wriggling - and that is "jink" - it is often used of attacking football players dodging and twisting their way through tackles - it may be Scottish in origin - my team (Woking FC) used to have a player nick-named "jinky" (Scott Steele) who was a Scot by origin as well as by name.

• Get a wriggle on R. Berg 03/October/03
  • Jink & jinker Lotg 04/October/03