writhe

“Oh no. Oh no. No, no, no, no, no,” Peyton Manning said as he watched Dart writhe on the ground while holding his knee.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 22, 2026

Instead, they take turns to silently perform a series of moves and poses that look, to the untrained eye, as if they are playing charades or, as they writhe on the ground, breakdancing.

From Barron's ● Aug. 22, 2026

When athletes tear ACLs in other sports, crowds are used to watching them writhe on the ground in agony.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 5, 2026

The Colombian star put on a spectacular show that saw her dance with knives, writhe in a fake cave and play a fiery guitar solo during Objection Tango.

From BBC ● Sep. 13, 2023

Little plumes of smoke, thick as worms, began to writhe in the air.

From "Dragonwings" by Laurence Yep

“The Gilded Age” embarks on its third season as America writhes in what many believe to be its death throes.

From Salon ● Jun. 22, 2025

Through a hole in the circular set, an elevator rises with various set pieces, and most notably, the hospital bed on which Prior writhes in agony, and where he’s nursed by Justin Weaks’s marvelous Belize.

From Washington Post ● Apr. 2, 2023

Mr. Nichols moans and writhes on the ground.

From New York Times ● Jan. 29, 2023

He writhes on the ground before being slumped up against a car, unable to properly sit up himself.

From BBC ● Jan. 28, 2023

There will be no more life in the oceans, where the Midgard serpent writhes.

From "Norse Mythology" by Neil Gaiman

When Williams fell to the grass on the run with a noncontact injury on Sunday, the football world feared the worst as he writhed in agony.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 22, 2026

His fevers were so bad that he insisted on sleeping in the rain, and he writhed in pain "like he'd been thrown in hot oil", says his mother, Sughra.

From BBC ● Apr. 13, 2026

"It's all of ours first day," said a curator, re-assembling the artwork as it writhed.

From Barron's ● Mar. 18, 2026

The quarterback briefly writhed on the turf but didn’t come out of the game.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 21, 2025

The sword in Finn’s hands writhed and he dropped it to the ground, where it twitched like a cornstalk in the wind and slithered into a nearby tent.

From "Bone Gap" by Laura Ruby

Chloe O. Davis devised writhing choreography for the six dancers who supplied some movement, in contrast to the mostly static chorus.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 13, 2026

As soon as Mahomes was left writhing on the ground and grabbing his knee late in the fourth quarter against the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday, it was clear he had sustained a serious injury.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 15, 2025

The ghost of Gaga past re-emerges for Perfect Celebrity, writhing with camp energy in a shallow grave as she sings about the pressure and torture of stardom.

From BBC ● Sep. 30, 2025

Moments later, the cat lays purring and writhing on the ground until it "dies".

From BBC ● Nov. 12, 2024

When I opened my eyes, four oversize fetterlings were writhing beneath both of her heels, like roaches being smooshed on a kitchen floor.

From "Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky" by Kwame Mbalia