Other forms: writhing, writhes, writhed
To writhe is to twist the body about in pain. Writhe in agony, writhed on the ground, writhing figures.
It is involuntary and it is what severe pain looks like from outside. It also describes anything twisting: writhing snakes, writhing smoke. Note that the Old English verb meant to twist or weave, and that wreath, wrist and wrestle all come from the same twisting.
1verbwritheTo twist the body about in pain.
“The injured player writhed on the grass, holding his knee.”
writhe is a twisting.
Old English writhan means to twist or weave. Wreath, wrist and wrestle come from the same twisting.
Proto-Indo-European
*wreyt- — to twist, writhe
Proto-Germanic
*wrīþaną — to weave, twist, turn
Proto-West Germanic
*wrīþan
Old English
wrīþan
Middle English
writhen
English, today
writhe
From Middle English writhen, from Old English wrīþan, from Proto-West Germanic wrīþan, from Proto-Germanic wrīþaną (“to weave, twist, turn”), from Proto-Indo-European wreyt- (“to twist, writhe”). Cognate with Middle Dutch writen (“to turn, twist”), dialectal German reiden (“to turn, twist, lace”), Danish vride (“to twist”), Swedish vrida (“to turn, twist, wind”), French rider (“to wrinkle, furrow, ruffle”). Compare also Lithuanian riēsti (“to unbend, wind, roll”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA