worming

1. 1
   noununcountable

   The process of treating an animal to remove the parasitic worms living inside it.

   The vet recommended worming every three months for outdoor cats.

   After worming, the puppy passed several parasites within a day.

   Note

   Pet care uses it both as a mass noun and as a count noun. Uncountable, it names the practice, as in regular worming. Countable, it names each separate treatment. That is how Kristine Kraeuter's Training Your Beagle (2001) can list frequent vet visits "for vaccinations and wormings." Use the plural when you are counting individual treatments rather than describing the routine.

2. 2
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of worm.

   Worming through the dense undergrowth, the scout finally reached the river.

   The technicians spent the afternoon worming the cables through the conduit.

   Note

   One spelling, two jobs. As a participle it builds progressive verbs (she was worming forward), and as a gerund it names the action (worming through the crowd took an hour). The figurative uses are the ones to know: worming one's way into favor, and worming a secret out of someone, which takes out of. The same spelling also serves as a noun for treating an animal for worms.

3. 3
   noununcountable

   A tendency in some yarns and threads to gather and bunch together once they have been woven into fabric.

   Inspectors rejected the bolt of cloth because of worming along the selvage.

   Adjusting the loom tension reduced the worming in the final weave.

   Similarbunching

   Note

   A yarn fault that crafters name well beyond the loom. Dora Ohrenstein blames a larger crochet hook for the "worming" of chenille, and Clara Parkes advises knitters to stick with yarns that lack "a reputation for worming." Uneven tension or residual twist in the fiber usually causes it. For that reason it is spoken of as a property of a yarn as well as a flaw in a finished piece.

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