worm 
2. Technically, in :o6l., any member of the 
Linuean class Vermes, or of the modern phylum 
or subkingdom of the same name ; any turbel- 
lai'iau, planarian, nemevtean, platyhelminth, 
nemathelminth, trematoid, cestoid, nematoid, 
cha?tognath, gephyrean, annelid, etc. By some 
authorities the rotiiers and polyzoans are brought under 
this head. See Vennei, and the various words noted in 
1 (a\ (6), above. 
3. A person or human being likened to a worm 
as an object of scorn, disgust, contempt, pity, 
and the like : as, man is but a loorm of the dust. 
Vile worm, thou wast o'erlooked even in thy birth. 
Shak., M. W. of W., v. 5. 87. 
Hence — 4. Figuratively, of inanimate objects, 
something that slowly, silently, or stealthily 
eats, makes, or works its way, to the pain, in- 
jury, or destruction of the object affected : used 
emblematically or symljolically. (a) Corruption, 
decay, or dissolution ; death itself. 
Thus chides she Death — 
"Grim-sTlnning ghost, earth's worm, what dost thou mean, 
To stifle beauty and to steal his breath?" 
Shak., Venus and Adonis, 1. 933. 
My days are in the yellow leaf ; 
The flowers and fruits of love are gone ; 
The ivorvi, the canker, and the grief 
Are mine alone ! 
Byron, On his Thirty-sixth Birthday. 
(6) An uneasy conscience; tlie gnawing or torment of con- 
science ; remorse. 
The worm of conscience still begnaw thy soul ! 
Shak., Kich. III., i. 3. 222. 
Beatrice. The true value, 
Tak 't of my truth, is near three hundred ducats. 
De Flores. 'Twill hardly buy a capcase for one's con- 
science though. 
To keep it from the worm. 
Middleton and Rowley, Changeling, iii. 4. 
5. In aiHit., some vermiform part or process of 
an animal's body, (a) The vermis of the cerebellum. 
See vermis, ib) The vermiform cartilage of a dog's tongue. 
See lytta. 
There is one easy artifice 
That seldom has been known to miss ; 
To snarl at all things, right or wrong, 
Like a mad dog that has a worm in 's tongue. 
S. Butter. 
6. Anything thought to resemble a worm in ap- 
pearance, or in having a spiral or curved move- 
ment, (a) The spiral part of a corkscrew or of a wood- 
screw. Alsowf^riwr. (&) A rod having at the end a double 
spiral as if two corkscrews were combined, used in with- 
drawing the cartridge or wad from the barrel of a gun. 
Also wanner. Compare wadhook. (c) The spiral pipe in 
a still, through which the vapor to be condensed is con- 
ducted. See distillation, i, and cut wn^tir peirolewtn-still. 
id) A spiral tool with a sharp point, used to bore soft 
rock. E. //. Knight. 
7. jpl. Any disease or disorder arising from the 
presence of parasitic worms in the intestines or 
other tissues : helminthiasis Clover-hay worm. 
.See ciocer.— Cystic worm. See ci/sfici .—Double worms, 
the genus Diplozijon. See cut under syzy<jy. — GoXXh3JTCi 
worm, Dochmius intentinalis : so called because of the 
large number of cases of anemia among the workers on the 
St. Gotthard tun nel, caused by the presence of this parasite. 
iiee tunnel-disease. — IdlewOTmsi . ^eeidle. — Intestinal 
worm, (a) A wornt having itself an intestine ; an en- 
teric or enterate worm ; a cavitary. (6) A worm parasitic 
in the intestine of another animal, as a tapeworm, thread- 
wonn, pinworm, etc. — Leaf-bearing worms. See Phyl- 
lodocidte. — Mugd worm, a kind of silkworm, Antherwa 
assaina. 
Silk cloth is made from the cocoons of the mugd worm. 
Encyc. Brit, XIV. 226. 
Palm worm, the lai-va of one of the palm weevils, lihyn- 
chophorus(Calandra)palmaruni, and doubtless of any simi- 
lar species, as /(. (C.) eruentatm. found in the heart of the 
cabbage-palm. It is a large white worm, often eaten in 
.South America, the West Indies, and elsewhere, known as 
the gruyru. and by the French name verpalmiste. It is said 
to taste like almonds. — Parenchymatous worms, the 
Parejichyinata. -YlSiited worms, the Aiq)idoyagteridie. 
— Rack-and-worm gear. Scc racJ-i, (;.— Reshta worm, 
the guinea-worm, Onici/nrnli/.^ (or Filaria) rnedinenxv^. 
See cut under /'iVnrta. Ringed, star-mouthed, tailed, 
vesicular worms. See the adjectives. — White-rag 
worm. Same as /iiry. Worm gearing. Same as «w«i- 
gear. 
worm (wenn), r. [= D. ivurmcn, torment one- 
self, vex oneself, woi'ry, work hard ; ef. G. niir- 
men, crawl, wriggle, be lost in thought, also tr. 
tease, grieve, inirmni, worm, worry ; from the 
noun.] I. intrd}!.^. 1. To move like a worm ; 
go or advance as a worm; crawl or creep sinu- 
ously; wriggle; wi-ithe; squirm: as, to worm 
along. 
"I little like that smoke, which you may see worming 
up along the rock above the canoe," interrupted the . . . 
scout. J. F. Cooper, Last of Mohicans, xx. 
They wormed through the grass to within forty or fifty 
feet of the rifle-jiits. The Century, XXIX, 13!J. 
2. To work or act slowly, stealthily, or secretly. 
When debates anrl fretting jealousies 
Diti worm and work within you more^and more, 
Your colour fadeil. 
G. Herbert, 'I'lie Temple, Church-Rents and Schisms. 
6980 
II. trans. 1. To effect by slow, stealthy, or 
insidious means : as, to worm one's way along. 
In this sense also, reflexively, of slow, insidious, or insin- 
uating progress or action : as, he wanned hitnself into fa- 
vor. 
I was endeavoring to settle some points of the greatest 
consequence; and had wormed myself ipretty well into 
hiTn, when his under secretary came in — and interrupted 
all my scheme. Sw\ft, Journal to Stella, Aug. 1, 1711. 
Specifically —2. To extract, remove, expel, or 
take away by underhand means persistently 
continued: generally with out or from. 
It is a riddle to me how this story of oracles hath not 
wormed out of the world that doubtful conceit of spirits 
and witches. Sir T. Browne, Religio Medici, i. 30. 
They find themselves wormed out of all power. Bwift. 
Who've loosed a guinea from a miser's chest. 
And wormed his secret from a traitor's breast. 
Crabbe, Works, I. 196. 
3t. To subject to a stealthy process of ferret- 
ing out one's secrets or private affairs; play 
the spy upon. 
I'll teach you to wann me, good lady sister, 
And peep into my privacies, to suspect me. 
Fletcher, Wit without Money, iv. 4. 
4. To free from worms. 
Wormes in the earth also there are, but too many, so 
that, to keepe them from destroying their Come and To- 
bacco they are forced to wornw them enry morning, 
which is a great labour, else all would be destroyed. 
Capt. John Smith, Works, II. llfl. 
Another strange gardener . . . challenges as his right 
the binding or unbinding of every flower, the clipping of 
every bush, the weeding and worming of every bed, both 
in that and all other gardens thereabout. 
Milton, On Def. of Humb. Remonst., vi. 
5. To remove the charge, etc., from, as a gun, 
by means of a worm. See worm, n., 6 (b). — 6. 
To remove the worm or lytta from the tongue 
of, as of a dog: supposed to be a precaution 
against madness. 
Is she grown mad now ? 
Is her blood set so high ? I'll have her madded ! 
I'll have her wonn'd .' Fletcher, Pilgrim, iv. 1. 
I made it up with him by tying a collar of rainbow riii- 
band about his neck for a token that he is never to be 
wormed any more. //. Walpde, To Mann, Oct. 3, 1743. 
The men repaired her ladyship's cracked china, and as- 
sisted the laird in his sporting pai'ties, wormed his dogs, 
and cut the ears of his terrier puppies. Scott. 
7. To remove the beard of (an oyster or mus- 
sel). — 8t. To give a spiral form to ; put a thread 
on. 
Grow'n more cunning, hollow things he fornieth, 
He hatcheth Files, and winding Vices wonneth. 
He shapeth Slieers, and then a Saw indents, 
Then beats a Blade, and then a Lock invents. 
Sylvester, tr. of Du Bartas's Weeks, The Handy-Crafts. 
9. \(iitt., to wind rope-yarns, spun yam, or 
similar material spirally round (a rope) so as 
to fill the spaces between the strands and ren- 
der the surface smooth for parceling and serv- 
ing. See cuts uiidev parccUixj and serving-mal- 
let. 
WOrmal (wor'mal), n. Same as warble^. 
worm-bark (wefm'biirk), «. See cabbage-tree, 
2, and Andira. 
WOrm-burrow (werm'bur'''6), «. A fossil worm- 
cast ; a scolite or helmintholite. 
worm-cast (werm'kast), «. 1. The cylindrical 
casting of a worm ; the slender tubular mass of 
earth voided by the common earthworm after 
digestion. 
The wonn-casts which so much annoy the gardener by 
deforming his smoothshaven lawns. 
E. P. Wright, Animal Life, p. 675. 
2. The fossil cast, mold, or track of a worm or 
some vermiform creature ; a helminthite or 
helmintholite; a worm-burrow. 
worm-cod (werm'kod), «. See eod^. 
worm-colic (werm'kol"ik), h. Intestinal pain 
due to the presence of worms. 
worm-dye (werin'di>, n. Same as vermeil. 
worm-eat (werm'et), r. t. [A back-formation, 
from wi)rm-eate>i.~i 1. To eat into, gnaw, bore, 
or perforate, as is done by various worms, 
grubs, maggots, etc.; eat a way through or 
into. Hee worm-eaten. — 2. To affect injurious- 
ly, impair, or destroy by any slow, insidious 
process. 
Leave off these vanities which wiyrm-eat your brain. 
Jariiis, tr. of Don Quixote, II. iv. 10. (Dairies.) 
worm-eatt (werm'et), p. a. Same as worm- 
eaten. 
Worm-eat stories of old times. Bp. Hall, Satires, I. iv. 6. 
worm-eaten (werm'e"tn). p. a. [< ME.*Hcr»)- 
itcn, wcrmetke; < worm + eaten.] 1. Eaten 
into by a worm; gnawed, bored, or perforated 
V)y worms of any kind; abounding in worm- 
holes ; woi'iuy : as, worm-eaten timber, fabrics, 
fruit. 
worm-oil 
We see the come blasted, trees stricken downe, flourea 
fall, woode wonneaten, cloath deuoured with moathes, 
cattell doe ende, and menne doe die. 
Guevara, Letters (tr. by Hellowes, 1677), p. 192. 
Concave as a covered goblet or a worm-eaten nut 
Shak., As you Like it, iii. 4. 27. 
2. Old, worn-out, or worthless, as if eaten by 
worms. Raleigh, Hist. World (ed. 1687), p. 58. 
W0rm-eatenne8S(werm'e"tn-nes), n. The state 
of being worm-eaten, or as if worm-eaten ; de- 
cay ; rot. 
worm-ea'ter (werm'e'tfer), «. A bird or other 
animal that habitually eats or lives upon 
worms; specifically, the worm-eating warbler 
of the United States, Helmintherus vermivorus. 
See worm-eating and Vermivora. Edwards; La- 
tham. 
worm-eating (werm'e"ting), a. Habitually eat- 
ing worms; feeding or subsisting upon worms; 
vermivorous; in ornith., noting a number of 
American warblers of the genera Helmintherus 
and Helminthophaga (formerlj' Vermivora), and 
specifying the worm-eater, Helmintherus vermi- 
vorus, a common species of the eastern United 
States. 
wormed (wermd), a. [< worm + -ed^.] Af- 
fected by worms ; gnawed, bored, or otherwise 
injured by worms; worm-eaten; wormy. 
Occasionally the wood [mahogany] which has been 
floated in tropical seas is found to be badly wormed or at- 
tacked by marine borers. Uncyc. Brit., XV. 288. 
WOrmer (w^r'mer), II. 1. Same as worm, 6 
(a) and (6). — 2. An angler who fishes with 
worms for bait; a worm-fisher. [Colloq.] 
worm-fence (werm'fens), n. A zigzag fence 
made by placing the ends of the rails at an an- 
gle upon one another; a snake-fence. 
They had reached the corner of the old worm-fence 
where the new school-mistress had reined her horse. 
Harpers Mag., LXXIX. 124. 
worm-fever (w^rm'fe'''ver), n. A feverish con- 
dition in children which is attributed to the 
presence of intestinal parasites. 
worm-fisher (w6rm'fish''''er), «. One who fishes 
with worms for bait. 
worm-fowlt (wferm'foul), n. pi. [< ME. werm- 
foul ; < worm + /otc?i.] Birds which live on 
worms. 
"I for werm-/oul," seyde the lewd kokkow. 
Chaucer, Parliament of Fowls, L 505. 
worm-gear (werm'ger), n. In maeh., a gear- 
wheel of which the teeth are so formed that they 
are acted on and the wheel is made to revolve 
by a worm or shaft on which a spiral is turned 
— that is, by an endless screw. See cuts un- 
der Hindley's screw (at screw), steam-engine, and 
odometer. 
worm-grass (werm'gras), n. 1. SameasptwJr- 
root, 2. — 2. An old name of a species of stone- 
crop, fiedum albttm, given on account of its 
worm-like leaves. 
WOnngut (wferm'gut), n. Same as silkworm 
gut. See gut, n., 4. 
■worm-hole (werm'hol), n. The hole or track 
made by a worm, as in timber, fruit, etc. 
To fill with worm-holes stately monuments. 
Shak., Lucrece, 1. 946. 
worm-holed (w^rm'hold), a. Perforated with 
worm-holes. 
Like sound timber wormhoted and made shaky. 
Lowell, Among my Books, Ist ser., p. 212. 
Wormian (w6r'mi-an), a. Of or pertaining to 
Olaus Worm, a Danish physician and scientist 
(1588-1654) — Wormian bones. Seebone^. 
wormil (wor'mil), H. Same as wormal. See 
trarhlc'^. 
WOrming-pot (wer'ming-pot), n. In jiottert/, a 
device for placing bands, stripes, or other or- 
naments in color upon pottery. It consists of a 
vessel from which the color issues ' through quill-like 
tubes in a continuous stream as the ware is revolved in 
a lathe. 
worm-larva (wenn'lar vil), It. The larva of a 
worm ; the larval stage of one of the Vermes. 
worm-like (werm'lik), a. Kesembling a worm 
ill shape or movement ; vermiform ; vermicu- 
lar; s^jiral or spirally twisted. 
WOrmling (werm'ling), «. [= Icel. yrmUngr; 
as worm + -ling^.'] A little worm; hence, a 
weak, mean creature. 
O dusty wonnling ! dar'st thou striue and stand 
With Heav'ns high Monarch? wilt thou (wretch) demand 
Count of his deeds? 
Syli'ester, tr. of Du Bartas's Weeks, ii , The Imposture. 
wormodt, "• A Middle English form of icorm- 
wood. Wijclif. 
worm-oil (werm'oil), h. Same as wormseed-oU, 
