Wormname

• 1

  A surname.

wormnoun/wɜːm/

• 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

  archaicAny creeping or crawling animal, such as a snake (cf. “dragon”; blindworm, slowworm, “legless lizard”), snail, or caterpillar.

  • A forlyued cok leiþ eiren in his laste elde... and ȝif any venemous worme sittiþ on broode þerevppon in þe canyculer dayes, þerof is igendrid... a cocatrice.
  • 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.
• 4

  archaicinformalAny creeping or crawling animal, such as a snake (cf. “dragon”; blindworm, slowworm, “legless lizard”), snail, or caterpillar.

  • Those little wriggling worms are the larvae of flies who laid eggs here.
• 5

  archaicA dragon, today especially Germanic dragon, more often of the serpentine or wingless type, for example sea serpent, but also any kind of dragon.

  • a. 1398, John Trevisa, transl. Bartholomeus Anglicus as De Proprietatibus Rerum (MS BL Add. 27944), Vol. I, p. 628:
  • In the Cross of Cong (A.D. 1123) the Celtic inter-laced patterns are found side by side with the "worm-dragon" ornament ..
• 6

  archaicfantasyliteraturemediaA dragon, today especially Germanic dragon, more often of the serpentine or wingless type, for example sea serpent, but also 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.
• 8

  computingengineeringmathematicsA self-replicating program that propagates through a network by copying itself, differing from a virus which seeks to propagate by inserting its code into other executable files.

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

wormverb/wɜːm/

• 1

  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

  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

  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

  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

  To effect, remove, drive, draw, or the like, by slow and secret means.

  • They […]find themselves wormed out of all power.
• 6

  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

  nauticaltransportTo 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

  To deworm (an animal).

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