Maggot definition

măgət

Words form:

Frequency:

(slang) A despicable person.

noun

(archaic) An extravagant notion; a whim.

noun

A wormlike insect larva, as the legless larva of the housefly: often found in decaying matter.

noun

The legless, soft-bodied, wormlike larva of any of various dipteran flies, often found in decaying matter.

noun

The legless, soft-bodied, wormlike larva of any of various dipteran flies, often found in decaying matter.

noun

(archaic) An odd notion; whim.

noun

A term of insult for a 'worthless' person, as if a bug.

Drop and give me fifty, maggot.

noun

A soft, legless larva of a fly or other dipterous insect, that often eats decomposing organic matter.

noun

Other Word Forms

Singular:

maggot

Plural:

maggots

Middle English magot perhaps alteration of mathek, maddokk perhaps from Old English matha

From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition
From Middle English magot, magotte, probably Anglo-Norman alteration of maddock (“worm", "maggot"), originally a diminutive form of a base represented by Old English maþa (Scots mathe), from common Germanic root *mathon-, from the Proto-Indo-European root *math-, which was used in insect names, equivalent to made +"Ž -ock. Near-cognates include Dutch made, German Made and Swedish mask. The use of maggot to mean a fanciful or whimsical thing derives from the folk belief that a whimsical or crotchety person had maggots in his or her brain.

From Wiktionary