worm definition | Dictionary.com

worm

[wurm]

–noun

1.	Zoology. any of numerous long, slender, soft-bodied, legless, bilaterally symmetrical invertebrates, including the flatworms, roundworms, acanthocephalans, nemerteans, gordiaceans, and annelids.

2.	(loosely) any of numerous small creeping animals with more or less slender, elongated bodies, and without limbs or with very short ones, including individuals of widely differing kinds, as earthworms, tapeworms, insect larvae, and adult forms of some insects.

3.	something resembling or suggesting a worm in appearance, movement, etc.

4.	Informal. a groveling, abject, or contemptible person.

5.	the spiral pipe in which the vapor is condensed in a still.

6.	(not in technical use) screw thread (def. 1).

7.	screw conveyor.

8.	a rotating cylinder or shaft, cut with one or more helical threads, that engages with and drives a worm wheel.

9.	something that penetrates, injures, or consumes slowly or insidiously, like a gnawing worm.

10.	worms, (used with a singular verb) Pathology, Veterinary Pathology. any disease or disorder arising from the presence of parasitic worms in the intestines or other tissues; helminthiasis.

11.	(used with a plural verb) Metallurgy. irregularities visible on the surfaces of some metals subject to plastic deformation.

12.	the lytta of a dog or other carnivorous animal.

13.	computer code planted illegally in a software program so as to destroy data in any system that downloads the program, as by reformatting the hard disk.

–verb (used without object)

14.	to move or act like a worm; creep, crawl, or advance slowly or stealthily.

15.	to achieve something by insidious procedure (usually fol. by into): to worm into another's favor.

16.	Metallurgy. craze (def. 8a).

–verb (used with object)

17.	to cause to move or advance in a devious or stealthy manner: The thief wormed his hand into my coat pocket.

18.	to get by persistent, insidious efforts (usually fol. by out or from): to worm a secret out of a person.

19.	to insinuate (oneself or one's way) into another's favor, confidence, etc.: to worm his way into the king's favor.

20.	to free from worms: He wormed the puppies.

21.	Nautical. to wind yarn or the like spirally round (a rope) so as to fill the spaces between the strands and render the surface smooth.

Origin:
bef. 900; ME (n.); OE wyrm, dragon, serpent, worm; c. D worm, G Wurm, ON ormr; akin to L vermis

Related forms:

wormer, noun

wormlike, wormish, adjective

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screw conveyor

–noun

a device for moving loose materials, consisting of a shaft with a broad, helically wound blade rotating in a tube or trough.

Also called worm.

screw thread

–noun

1.	Also called worm. the helical ridge of a screw.

2.	a full turn of the helical ridge of a screw.

Origin:
1805–15

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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Link To worm

worm (wûrm)

Any of various invertebrates, as those of the phyla Annelida, Nematoda, Nemertea, or Platyhelminthes, having a long, flexible, rounded or flattened body, often without obvious appendages.
Any of various crawling insect larvae, such as a grub or a caterpillar, having a soft elongated body.
Any of various unrelated animals, such as the shipworm or the slowworm, resembling a worm in habit or appearance.
1. Something, such as the thread of a screw or the spiral condenser in a still, that resembles a worm in form or appearance.
2. The spirally threaded shaft of a worm gear.
An insidiously tormenting or devouring force: "felt the black worm of treachery growing in his heart" (Mario Puzo).
A person regarded as pitiable or contemptible.
worms Pathology Infestation of the intestines or other parts of the body with worms or wormlike parasites; helminthiasis.
Computer Science A malicious program that replicates itself until it fills all of the storage space on a drive or network.

v. wormed, worm·ing, worms

v. tr.

To make (one's way) with or as if with the sinuous crawling motion of a worm.
To work (one's way or oneself) subtly or gradually; insinuate: She wormed her way into his confidence.
To elicit by artful or devious means. Usually used with out of: wormed a confession out of the suspect.
To cure of intestinal worms.
Nautical To wrap yarn or twine spirally around (rope).

v. intr.

To move in a manner suggestive of a worm.
To make one's way by artful or devious means: He can't worm out of this situation.

[Middle English, from Old English wurm, variant of wyrm; see wer-² in Indo-European roots.]

WORM
abbr. Computer Science write once, read many

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Worm

Worm\ (w[^u]rm), n. [OE. worm, wurm, AS. wyrm; akin to D. worm, OS. & G. wurm, Icel. ormr, Sw. & Dan. orm, Goth. wa['u]rms, L. vermis, Gr. ? a wood worm. Cf. Vermicelli, Vermilion, Vermin.]

1. A creeping or a crawling animal of any kind or size, as a serpent, caterpillar, snail, or the like. [Archaic]

There came a viper out of the heat, and leapt on his hand. When the men of the country saw the worm hang on his hand, they said, This man must needs be a murderer. --Tyndale (Acts xxviii. 3, 4).

'T is slander, Whose edge is sharper than the sword, whose tongue Outvenoms all the worms of Nile. --Shak.

When Cerberus perceived us, the great worm, His mouth he opened and displayed his tusks. --Longfellow.

2. Any small creeping animal or reptile, either entirely without feet, or with very short ones, including a great variety of animals; as, an earthworm; the blindworm. Specifically: (Zo["o]l.) (a) Any helminth; an entozo["o]n. (b) Any annelid. (c) An insect larva. (d) pl. Same as Vermes.

3. An internal tormentor; something that gnaws or afflicts one's mind with remorse.

The worm of conscience still begnaw thy soul! --Shak.

4. A being debased and despised.

I am a worm, and no man. --Ps. xxii. 6.

5. Anything spiral, vermiculated, or resembling a worm; as: (a) The thread of a screw.

The threads of screws, when bigger than can be made in screw plates, are called worms. --Moxon. (b) A spiral instrument or screw, often like a double corkscrew, used for drawing balls from firearms. (c) (Anat.) A certain muscular band in the tongue of some animals, as the dog; the lytta. See Lytta. (d) The condensing tube of a still, often curved and wound to economize space. See Illust. of Still. (e) (Mach.) A short revolving screw, the threads of which drive, or are driven by, a worm wheel by gearing into its teeth or cogs. See Illust. of Worm gearing, below.

Worm abscess (Med.), an abscess produced by the irritation resulting from the lodgment of a worm in some part of the body.

Worm fence. See under Fence.

Worm gear. (Mach.) (a) A worm wheel. (b) Worm gearing.

Worm gearing, gearing consisting of a worm and worm wheel working together.

Worm grass. (Bot.) (a) See Pinkroot, 2 (a) . (b) The white stonecrop (Sedum album) reputed to have qualities as a vermifuge. --Dr. Prior.

Worm oil (Med.), an anthelmintic consisting of oil obtained from the seeds of Chenopodium anthelminticum.

Worm powder (Med.), an anthelmintic powder.

Worm snake. (Zo["o]l.) See Thunder snake (b), under Thunder.

Worm tea (Med.), an anthelmintic tea or tisane.

Worm tincture (Med.), a tincture prepared from dried earthworms, oil of tartar, spirit of wine, etc. [Obs.]

Worm wheel, a cogwheel having teeth formed to fit into the spiral spaces of a screw called a worm, so that the wheel may be turned by, or may turn, the worm; -- called also worm gear, and sometimes tangent wheel. See Illust. of Worm gearing, above.

Worm

Worm\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Wormed; p. pr. & vb. n. Worming.] To work slowly, gradually, and secretly.

When debates and fretting jealousy Did worm and work within you more and more, Your color faded. --Herbert.

Worm

Worm\, v. t. 1. To effect, remove, drive, draw, or the like, by slow and secret means; -- often followed by out.

They find themselves wormed out of all power. --Swift.

They . . . wormed things out of me that I had no desire to tell. --Dickens.

2. To clean by means of a worm; to draw a wad or cartridge from, as a firearm. See Worm, n. 5 (b) .

3. To cut the worm, or lytta, from under the tongue of, as a dog, for the purpose of checking a disposition to gnaw. The operation was 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. --Sir W. Scott.

4. (Naut.) To wind rope, yarn, or other material, spirally round, between the strands of, as a cable; to wind with spun yarn, as a small rope.

Ropes . . . are generally wormed before they are served. --Totten.

To worm one's self into, to enter into gradually by arts and insinuations; as, to worm one's self into favor.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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Language Translation for : worm

Spanish: gusano, lombriz,

German: der Wurm,

Japanese: 虫

More Translations »

worm

n. [from `tapeworm' in John Brunner's novel "The Shockwave Rider", via XEROX PARC] A program that propagates itself over a network, reproducing itself as it goes. Compare virus. Nowadays the term has negative connotations, as it is assumed that only crackers write worms. Perhaps the best-known example was Robert T. Morris's Great Worm of 1988, a `benign' one that got out of control and hogged hundreds of Suns and VAXen across the U.S. See also cracker, RTM, Trojan horse, ice.

Jargon File 4.2.0
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worm

O.E. wurm, variant of wyrm "serpent, dragon," also in later O.E. "earthworm," from P.Gmc. *wurmiz (cf. O.S., O.H.G., Ger. wurm, O.Fris., Du. worm, O.N. ormr, Goth. waurms "serpent, worm"), from PIE *wrmi-/*wrmo- "worm" (cf. Gk. rhomos, L. vermis "worm," O.Rus. vermie "insects," Lith. varmas "insect, gnat"), possibly from base *wer- "turn" (see versus). The ancient category of these was much more extensive than the modern, scientific, one and included serpents, scorpions, maggots, and the supposed causes of certain diseases. In Eng., the -o- was a scribal substitution to avoid confusion of -u- and -r- (as also in some, come, monk etc.). As an insult meaning "abject, miserable person" it dates from O.E. The verb meaning "to move like a worm" is recorded from 1610, in fig. senses (attested from 1627) suggesting patient, sinuous progress.

Main Entry: ¹worm
Pronunciation: 'w&rm
Function: noun
1 : any of various relatively small elongated usually naked and soft-bodiedparasitic animals (as of the phylum Platyhelminthes)
2 : HELMINTHIASIS —usually used in pluralworms> —worm·like /-"lIk/ adjective

Main Entry: ²worm
Function: transitive verb
: to treat (an animal) with a drug to destroy or expel parasitic worms

worm (wûrm)
n.

Any of various invertebrates, as those of the phyla Annelida, Nematoda, Nemertea, or Platyhelminthes, having a long, flexible, rounded or flattened body, often without obvious appendages.
Any of various crawling insect larvae, such as a grub or a caterpillar, having a soft, elongated body.
Any of various unrelated animals, such as the shipworm or the slowworm, resembling a worm in habit or appearance.
worms Infestation of the intestines or other parts of the body with worms or wormlike parasites; helminthiasis.

worm (wûrm) Pronunciation Key

Any of various invertebrate animals having a soft, long body that is round or flattened and usually lacks limbs. The term worm is used variously to refer to the segmented worms (or annelids, such as the earthworm), roundworms (or nematodes), flatworms (or platyhelminths), and various other groups.
A destructive computer program that copies itself over and over until it fills all of the storage space on a computer's hard drive or on a network.

Our Living Language : Earthworms are one of many types of worms, including those of the flat and round species. Over a century ago, Charles Darwin spent 39 years studying earthworms and wrote The Formation of Vegetable Mould Through the Action of Worms with Observations on Their Habits, an entire book that described his research on earthworm behavior and intelligence and further explained how important earthworms are to agriculture. "Long before [the plow] existed," he wrote, "the land was, in fact, regularly plowed and still continues to be thus plowed by earthworms. It may be doubted whether there are many other animals which have played so important a part in the history of the world." Darwin was referring to the way that earthworms naturally mix and till soil, while both improving its structure and increasing its nutrients. As they tunnel in the soil, earthworms open channels that allow in air and water, improving drainage and easing the way for plants to send down roots; they also carry nutrients from deep soils to the surface. Earthworms eat plant material in the soil, decaying leaves, and leaf litter, and their own waste provides nourishment for plants and other organisms. Slime, a secretion of earthworms, contains nitrogen, an important plant nutrient. It is estimated that each year earthworms in one acre of land move 18 or more tons of soil.

WORM
Write-Once Read-Many

worm networking, security
(From "Tapeworm" in John Brunner's novel "The Shockwave Rider", via XEROX PARC) A program that propagates itself over a network, reproducing itself as it goes. Compare virus. Nowadays the term has negative connotations, as it is assumed that only crackers write worms.
Perhaps the best-known example was the Great Worm.
Compare Trojan horse.
[The Jargon File]
(1996-09-17)

Worm

(1.) Heb. sas (Isa. 51:8), denotes the caterpillar of the clothes-moth. (2.) The manna bred worms (tola'im), but on the Sabbath there was not any worm (rimmah) therein (Ex. 16:20, 24). Here these words refer to caterpillars or larvae, which feed on corrupting matter. These two Hebrew words appear to be interchangeable (Job 25:6; Isa. 14:11). Tola'im in some places denotes the caterpillar (Deut. 28:39; Jonah 4:7), and rimmah, the larvae, as bred from putridity (Job 17:14; 21:26; 24:20). In Micah 7:17, where it is said, "They shall move out of their holes like worms," perhaps serpents or "creeping things," or as in the Revised Version, "crawling things," are meant. The word is used figuratively in Job 25:6; Ps. 22:6; Isa. 41:14; Mark 9:44, 46, 48; Isa. 66:24.

Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary
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worm

In addition to the idioms beginning with worm, also see can of worms; early bird catches the worm.

WORM
write once, read many [times]

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