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worm

Pronunciation: /wəːm/

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Definition of worm

noun

  • 1any of a number of creeping or burrowing invertebrate animals with long, slender soft bodies and no limbs.
    • Phyla Annelida (segmented worms), Nematoda (roundworms), and Platyhelminthes (flatworms), and up to twelve minor phyla
  • short for earthworm.
  • (worms) intestinal or other internal parasites: she ate so much so often that I thought she had worms
  • used in names of long slender insect larvae, especially those in fruit or wood, e.g. army worm, woodworm.
  • used in names of other animals that resemble worms in some way, e.g. slow-worm, shipworm.
  • a maggot regarded as eating corpses buried in the ground:food for worms
  • 2 informal a weak or despicable person (often used as a general term of abuse): it was unbearable that such a worm could be so successful you ungrateful little worm!
  • 3a helical device or component, in particular:
  • the threaded cylinder in a worm gear.
  • the coiled pipe of a still in which the vapour is cooled and condensed.
  • 4 Computing a self-replicating program able to propagate itself across a network, typically having a detrimental effect.

verb

  • 1 [no object, with adverbial of direction] move with difficulty by crawling or wriggling:I wormed my way along the roadside ditch
  • 2 [with object] (worm one's way into) insinuate one’s way into:George tried to worm his way into his girlfriend’s life
  • (worm something out of) obtain information from (someone) by cunning persistence:I did manage to worm a few details out of him
  • 3 [with object] treat (an animal) with a preparation designed to expel parasitic worms: I wormed her over a course of three weeks
  • 4 [with object] Nautical, archaic make (a rope) smooth by winding thread between the strands.

Phrases

(even) a worm will turn

proverb (even) a meek person will resist or retaliate if pushed too far: it was predictable that one day the worm would turn

Derivatives

worm-like

adjective

Origin:

Old English wyrm (noun), of Germanic origin; related to Latin vermis 'worm' and Greek rhomox 'woodworm'

worm in other Oxford dictionaries

Definition of worm in the US English dictionary

Nearby words

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