Tapeworm

tape·worm   (tāp'wûrm')    n.  Any of various ribbonlike, often very long flatworms of the class Cestoda, that lack an alimentary canal and are parasitic in the intestines of vertebrates, including humans.

tapeworm

A worm with a long, flat body that can live in the human intestines as a parasite. Infestation with a tapeworm usually occurs as the result of eating raw meat or fish that contains the immature form of the worm.

tapeworm 

Main Entry: tape·worm
Pronunciation: 'tAp-"w&rm
Function: noun
: any of the class Cestoda of flatworms that are parasitic as adults in thealimentary tract of vertebrates including humans and as larvae in a great variety of vertebrates and invertebrates, that typically consist of an attachment organ usually with suckers, grooves, hooks,or other devices for adhering to the host's intestine followed by an undifferentiated growth region from which buds off a chain of segments of which the anterior members are little more than blocks oftissue, the median members have fully developed organs of both sexes, and the posterior members are degenerated to egg-filled sacs, that have no digestive system and absorb food through the body wall,and that have a nervous system consisting of ganglia and commissures in the scolex and longitudinal cords extending the length of the strobila called also cestode; —see BEEF TAPEWORM, CAT TAPEWORM, FISH TAPEWORM, PORK TAPEWORM; ECHINOCOCCUS

tapeworm tape·worm (tāp'wûrm')
n.
Any of various ribbonlike, often very long flatworms of the class Cestoda, that lack an alimentary canal and are intestinal parasitic in humans.