Worm Definition
wûrm
wormed, worming, worms
noun
worms
Any of many slender, soft-bodied animals, some segmented, that live by burrowing underground, in water, or as parasites, including the annelids, nemerteans, nematodes, platyhelminths, acanthocephalans, and gordian worms.
Webster's New World
An insect larva, as a caterpillar, grub, or maggot.
Webster's New World
Any of several mollusks, as the shipworms.
Webster's New World
Any of various wormlike animals, as a rotifer or a blindworm.
Webster's New World
The spirally threaded shaft of a worm gear.
American Heritage
verb
wormed, worming, worms
To make (one's way) with the sinuous crawling motion of a worm.
American Heritage
To insinuate (oneself) into a situation, conversation, etc.
Webster's New World
To extract (information, secrets, etc.) by insinuation, cajolery, or subtle questioning.
Webster's New World
To elicit by artful or devious means. Usually used with out of .
Wormed a confession out of the suspect.
American Heritage
To move, proceed, etc. like a worm, in a winding, creeping, or devious manner.
Webster's New World
abbreviation
Write once, read many.
American Heritage
idiom
can of worms
- a complex, usually unpleasant problem
Webster's New World
Idioms, Phrasal Verbs Related to Worm
Origin of Worm
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From Middle English worm, werm, wurm, wirm, from Old English wyrm "˜snake, worm', from Proto-Germanic *wurmiz (compare Dutch worm, West Frisian wjirm, German Wurm, Danish orm), from Proto-Indo-European *wrÌ¥mis (compare Latin vermis '"˜worm', Lithuanian var̃mas "˜insect, midge', Albanian rrime "˜rainworm', Ancient Greek ῥόμος (rhomos, “woodworm")), possibly from *wer- "˜to turn'. First computer usage by John Brunner in his 1975 book The Shockwave Rider.
From Wiktionary
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Middle English from Old English wurm variant of wyrm wer-2 in Indo-European roots
From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition
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