# worm

Pronunciation: say "WURM" US /wɝm/, UK /wɜːm/

## Noun

1. Any of various long, slender, soft-bodied invertebrate animals without limbs, such as earthworms, flatworms, roundworms, and tapeworms.
   - Simple: A small, long, soft animal with no legs or backbone, like an earthworm.
   - _A worm tunnels through soil, mixing and aerating it as it goes._
   - _Gardeners value worms for enriching the soil._
2. In computing, a malicious program that copies itself and spreads across a network on its own, without needing to attach to another file.
   - Simple: A harmful computer program that copies itself and spreads from one computer to another by itself.
   - _The worm exploited an unpatched server to copy itself onto thousands of machines._
   - _Unlike a virus, this worm spread without anyone opening a file._
3. A contemptible or devious person.
   - Simple: A nasty, sneaky person who cannot be trusted.
   - _The witnesses described their former boss as a worm who cheated his own employees._
   - _Only a worm would steal from his own grandmother._
4. A maggot; the soft, legless larva of a fly. *(colloquial)*
   - Simple: A small, soft, legless creature that hatches from a fly's egg.
   - _Worms writhed in the carcass beneath the summer sun._
   - _A pale worm crawled from the rotting fruit._
8. A gnawing inner torment; a feeling of guilt or remorse that afflicts the mind.
   - Simple: A painful guilty feeling that will not leave your mind.
   - _A worm of remorse gnawed at the old man for the rest of his days._
   - _She could not silence the worm that fed on her conscience._
12. A dance or dance move in which the dancer lies face down and undulates the body horizontally to move forward.
   - Simple: A dance move where you lie face down and move your body in waves to slide forward.
   - _He finished his routine with the worm, gliding across the stage on his stomach._
   - _Breakdancers often close a set with the worm._
9. A mythical wingless dragon, a gigantic sea serpent, or a similar monstrous creature like the legendary Mongolian death worm. *(literary)*
   - Simple: A huge dragon-like monster from old stories, often wingless, like a giant snake or sea serpent.
   - _Legends warned that a fire-breathing worm coiled around the hoard deep in the cavern._
   - _The saga describes a worm so vast that its body ringed the entire island._
10. In gearing, a short rotating screw that meshes with the teeth of a worm wheel or rack, either driving it or being driven by it.
   - Simple: A spiral-threaded screw that turns a toothed wheel, used to pass on movement in machines.
   - _Engineers fitted a worm to reduce the motor's speed and increase its torque._
   - _The worm meshes with the wheel's teeth to transmit motion at a right angle._
13. Anything helical in shape, especially the spiral thread of a screw.
   - Simple: Any spiral shape, especially the winding ridge that runs around a screw.
15. The helical metal point of a corkscrew, which twists down into a cork so it can be pulled free.
   - Simple: The coiled metal spiral on a corkscrew that screws down into a cork.
   - _A sharp, well-made worm grips the cork without crumbling it._
   - _She turned the handle until the worm had sunk fully into the cork._
16. A corkscrew-like spiral tool fitted to a ramrod and screwed into a muzzle-loading barrel to draw out a ball or charge.
   - Simple: A spiral tool screwed into a gun barrel to pull out a stuck ball.
   - _When the musket misfired, she fitted a worm to the ramrod and drew out the unfired ball._
   - _A worm at the rod's tip caught the lead ball and pulled it free._
17. The coiled condensing tube of a still, wound into a spiral to save space while cooling rising vapor into liquid.
   - Simple: The curved, coiled tube in a still where hot vapor cools back into liquid.
   - _Vapor rising from the pot passes through the worm and drips out as clear spirit._
   - _An old copper worm sat coiled inside the wooden cooling tub._

## Verb

5. To treat an animal with medicine that clears out parasitic worms.
   - Simple: To give an animal medicine that removes the worms living inside it.
   - _Stables routinely worm their horses to control intestinal parasites._
   - _She wormed the new kitten the day after adopting it._
6. To get oneself gradually or deviously into, or out of, a place, position, group, or obligation.
   - Simple: To slowly or sneakily get yourself into or out of a place, group, or situation.
   - _The con artist wormed himself into the elderly couple's confidence._
   - _New advisers slowly worm their way into positions of power._
7. To move slowly and with effort through a narrow or crowded space by crawling, wriggling, or twisting the body.
   - Simple: To move slowly through a tight space or crowd by crawling or twisting your body.
   - _The explorer wormed his way through the narrow cave passage._
   - _Recruits learn to worm their way beneath obstacles during training._
14. To draw out, obtain, or remove something, especially information, by slow, persistent, or crafty means.
   - Simple: To slowly or cleverly get something out, especially information from someone who does not want to give it.
   - _The detective wormed a confession out of the nervous suspect._
   - _He managed to worm their plans out of an unsuspecting clerk._
18. To clean a firearm's barrel with a spiral tool, or to draw a wad or unfired charge out of it.
   - Simple: To clean a gun barrel, or pull out a charge, using a spiral tool.
   - _After a misfire, he had to worm the old musket to pull out the stuck wad._
   - _Before reloading, she wormed the rifle to remove the damp powder._

## Noun

11. An animal of any kind that creeps or crawls, including snakes, snails, and caterpillars. *(archaic)*
   - Simple: Any small creeping or crawling creature, such as a snake, snail, or caterpillar.

## Other meanings

- (noun) A graphed line showing a cricket team's total runs accumulated across the overs bowled.
- (noun) The lytta: a slender band of muscle and cartilage running lengthwise beneath the tongue of dogs and certain other mammals.
- (verb) To cut out the lytta from beneath a dog's tongue, formerly done to curb gnawing and thought to ward off rabies.
- (noun) A strip of tiles linked together along shared parallel edges within a tiling.
- (verb) To fill the spiral grooves of a rope with small line, done before parcelling and serving it for protection.

## Origin

From Middle English worm, from Old English wyrm ("worm, snake"), from Proto-Germanic *wurmiz and Proto-Indo-European *wr̥mis, possibly from a root *wer- meaning "to turn." It is a doublet of vermin and wyrm, and has cognates such as Dutch worm, German Wurm, Latin vermis, and Swedish orm ("snake"). The computing sense was first used by John Brunner in his 1975 book The Shockwave Rider.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/worm (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).