asquirm

Etymology

Definitions

1. 1

   Squirming.

   • 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.
   • […] 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.
   • 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.
2. 2

   Covered or filled (with something squirming).

   • an aquarium all asquirm with trout and gold fish
   • The little dancing floor in the center of the dining room suddenly was asquirm with posturing figures in mantillas and silks and boleros.
   • […] 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 […]

The neighborhood