worm

noun

1. A generally tubular invertebrate of the annelid phylum; an earthworm.

   “‘Children crawled over each other like little grey worms in the gutters,’ he said. ‘The only red things about them were their buttocks and they were raw. Their faces looked as if snails had slimed on them and their mothers were like great sick beasts whose byres had never been cleared.[…]’”

2. More loosely, any of various tubular invertebrates resembling annelids but not closely related to them, such as velvet worms, acorn worms, flatworms, or roundworms. See Appendix:English worms.

   “Leaning that I might eat, I stretched and clung Over the shapeless depth in which those corpses hung. A woman’s shape, now lank and cold and blue, The dwelling of the many-coloured worm, Hung there […]”

3. (archaic, poetic)Any creeping or crawling animal, such as a snake, snail, or caterpillar.

   “1561, Geneva Bible, Acts 28:3-4, And when Paul had gathered a nomber of stickes, & laid them on the fyre, there came a viper out of the heat, and leapt on his hand. Now when the Barbarians sawe the worme hang on his hand, they said among them selues This man surely is a murtherer, whome, thogh he hathe escaped the sea, yet Vengeance hathe not suffred to liue.”

   “[…] No, ’tis slander, Whose edge is sharper than the sword, whose tongue Outvenoms all the worms of Nile […]”

   “When Cerberus perceived us, the great worm! His mouth he opened and displayed his tusks; Not a limb had he that was motionless.”

4. (broadly, informal, poetic)A maggot or any other insect larva with similar shape and behavior.

   “Those little wriggling worms are the larvae of flies who laid eggs here.”

5. (archaic)A type of wingless "dragon", especially a gigantic sea serpent or any kind of dragon.

   “In the Cross of Cong (A.D. 1123) the Celtic inter-laced patterns are found side by side with the "worm-dragon" ornament ..”

   “Indeed the allusion to the more renowned worm killed by the Wælsing is sufficient indication that the poet selected a dragon of well-founded purpose[.]”

   “The after fifty years a foul worm, a dragon, took it upon itself to hold sway through the heavens at night.”

6. (archaic)A type of wingless "dragon", especially a gigantic sea serpent or any kind of dragon.
7. A contemptible or devious being.

   “Don't try to run away, you little worm!”

   “But I am a worme, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people.”

   “Would he devote that Sacred Head For ſuch a Worm as I?”

   “Lord, why is this, I trembling cry'd, Wilt thou purſue thy worm to death?”

8. A self-replicating program that propagates through a network, differing from a virus in usually lacking any destructive effects.

   “When Trevor opened his email, a worm spread to 100 people in his address book.”

9. A graphical representation of the total runs scored across a number of overs.
10. Anything helical, especially the thread of a screw.

    “If the Worms of the Nut or Spindle be worn, the Spindle must be examin'd by the Smith”

11. Anything helical, especially the thread of a screw.
12. Anything helical, especially the thread of a screw.
13. Anything helical, especially the thread of a screw.
14. Anything helical, especially the thread of a screw.
15. Anything helical, especially the thread of a screw.
16. (figuratively)An internal tormentor; something that gnaws or afflicts one’s mind with remorse.

    “The worm of conscience still begnaw thy soul!”

17. A strip of linked tiles sharing parallel edges in a tiling.
18. The lytta.
19. A dance, or dance move, in which the dancer lies on the floor and undulates the body horizontally thereby moving forwards.
20. (abbreviation, alt-of, initialism)Initialism of write once, read many.

verb

1. (transitive)To make (one's way) with a crawling motion.

   “We wormed our way through the underbrush.”

   “I took a firm grip of Josella's hand, and we started to worm our way along as unobviously as possible.”

2. (intransitive)To move with one's body dragging the ground.

   “Inch by inch I wormed along the secret passageway, flat to the ground, not once raising my head, hardly daring to pull a full breath[…].”

3. (figuratively, intransitive)To work one's way by artful or devious means.

   “When debates and fretting jealousy / Did worm and work within you more and more, / Your colour faded.”

4. (figuratively, transitive)To work (one's way or oneself) (into) gradually or slowly; to insinuate.

   “He wormed his way into the organization.”

   “With “facts” generated by Wikipedia worming themselves into every corner of our digital lives, such as your Alexa speaker or iPhone, perhaps it’s the ubiquity of information that’s the problem – and something that should concern us all.”

5. (often)To effect, remove, drive, draw, or the like, by slow and secret means.

   “They […]find themselves wormed out of all power.”

6. (figuratively, transitive)To drag out of, to get information that someone is reluctant or unwilling to give (through artful or devious means or by pleading or asking repeatedly).

   “They[…]wormed things out of me that I had no desire to tell.”

   “He nodded. "Mum's the word, Mrs. Bunting! It'll all be in the last editions of the evening newspapers—it can't be kep' out. There'd be too much of a row if twas!" "Are you going off to that public-house now?" she asked. "I've got a awk'ard job—to try and worm something out of the barmaid."”

7. (transitive)To fill in the contlines of (a rope) before parcelling and serving.

   “Worm and parcel with the lay; turn and serve the other way.”

   “Ropes[…]are generally wormed before they are served.”

8. (transitive)To deworm (an animal).
9. (transitive)To cut the worm, or lytta, from under the tongue of (a dog, etc.) for the purpose of checking a disposition to gnaw, and formerly supposed to guard against canine madness.

   “The men[…] assisted the laird in his sporting parties, wormed his dogs, and cut the ears of his terrier puppies.”

10. (transitive)To clean by means of a worm; to draw a wad or cartridge from, as a firearm.

name

1. A surname.