| 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. |
| 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). |
| 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. |

| a device for moving loose materials, consisting of a shaft with a broad, helically wound blade rotating in a tube or trough. |
| 1. | Also called worm. the helical ridge of a screw. |
| 2. | a full turn of the helical ridge of a screw. |

| WORM abbr. Computer Science write once, read many |
worm
|
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
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.
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] |