wormed

1. 1
   verb

   Past tense and past participle of worm.

   He wormed his way into the family's trust over many years.

   The vet wormed all the puppies before they went to new homes.

   Note

   The past form carries the verb's crawling and coaxing senses: wormed one's way into someone's confidence, wormed a secret out of someone. The first takes one's way or oneself as its object, followed by into or through. The second pairs an object with out of and suggests patient, devious pressure rather than force. The veterinary use and its clash with the adjective belong to the "infested" meaning.

2. 2
   adjective

   Infested with parasitic worms, such as those living in the gut or other tissues of an animal.

   The rescued dog was severely wormed and malnourished when it arrived.

   Heavily wormed livestock lose condition quickly despite adequate feed.

   Note

   A trap for the unwary reader, because the verb's participle points the other way. An animal a vet has wormed has been treated to clear the parasites, but a wormed animal in this adjectival sense still carries them. Context settles it. Degree words such as heavily, badly or more wormed signal infestation, while an agent such as the vet or the farmer signals treatment, as with the verb's past form.

3. 3
   adjective

   Affected by woodworm: the larvae of wood-boring beetles that tunnel through timber.

   The antique table was badly wormed beneath its polished surface.

   Surveyors found the wormed joists too unsafe to walk on.

   Oppositesound

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