worm
verbEtymology
From Middle English werm, wirm, worm, worme, wrim, wurm, wyrm, wyrme, from Old English weorm, wurm, wyrm, from Proto-West Germanic *wurmi, from Proto-Germanic *wurmiz (“worm; snake”), from Proto-Indo-European *wr̥mis (“worm; larva”), possibly from *wer- (“to turn”). Doublet of vermin and wyrm, the latter of which is a fairly recent borrowing directly from the Old English. (computing): First computer usage by John Brunner in his 1975 book The Shockwave Rider. Cognates Germanic cognates include North Frisian wörem, wörm, Würem (“worm”), Saterland Frisian Wurm, Wúurm (“worm”), West Frisian wjirm (“worm”), Alemannic German Wüüre (“worm”), Cimbrian bórm (“worm”), burm (“snake”), Dutch worm, wurm (“worm”), German Gewürm (“vermin”), Wurm (“worm”), Low German Worm (“worm”), Luxembourgish Wuerm (“worm”), Mòcheno burm (“snake”), Vilamovian vūəm, wüm (“worm”), Yiddish וואָרעם (vorem, “worm”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, and Swedish orm (“worm”), Faroese and Icelandic ormur (“worm”), Norwegian Nynorsk orm (“worm”), yrme, yrmle (“female snake with offspring”), Gothic 𐍅𐌰𐌿𐍂𐌼𐍃 (waurms, “snake”), Kildin Sami уррьм (urr’m, “gadfly larva”), Skolt Sami uʹrmm (“gadfly larva”). Indo-European cognates include Latin vermis (“worm”), Ancient Greek ῥόμοξ (rhómox), ῥόμος (rhómos, “woodworm”), Albanian rrime (“rainworm”).
10 senses
- 1To make (one's way) with a crawling motion.
- 2To move with one's body dragging the ground.
- 3To work one's way by artful or devious means.
- 4To work (one's way or oneself) (into) gradually or…
- 5To effect, remove, drive, draw, or the like, by slow and…
- 6To drag out of, to get information that someone is…
- 7To fill in the contlines of (a rope) before parcelling…
- 8To deworm (an animal).
- 9To cut the worm, or lytta, from under the tongue of (a…
- 10To clean by means of a worm; to draw a wad or cartridge…
To make (one's way) with a crawling motion.
- We wormed our way through the underbrush.
- I took a firm grip of Josella's hand, and we started to worm our way along as unobviously as possible.1951, John Wyndham, The Day of the Triffids, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, published 1954, page 80:
To move with one's body dragging the ground.
- Inch by inch I wormed along the secret passageway, flat to the ground, not once raising my head, hardly daring to pull a full breath[…].1919, William Joseph Long, How animals talk: and other pleasant studies of birds and beast:
Figuratively To work one's way by artful or devious means.
- When debates and fretting jealousy / Did worm and work within you more and more, / Your colour faded.[1633], George Herbert, edited by [Nicholas Ferrar], The Temple. Sacred Poems, and Private Ejaculations, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: […] Thomas Buck and Roger Daniel; and are to be sold by Francis Green, […], →OCLC:
Figuratively To work (one's way or oneself) (into) gradually or slowly; to insinuate.
- He wormed his way into the organization.
- With “facts” generated by Wikipedia worming themselves into every corner of our digital lives, such as your Alexa speaker or iPhone, perhaps it’s the ubiquity of information that’s the problem – and something that should concern us all.2021 May 27, Andrew Orlowski, “You think the BBC is biased? Check out Wokepedia”, in The Telegraph:
Often, Followed by out To effect, remove, drive, draw, or the like, by slow and secret means.
- They […]find themselves wormed out of all power.1731, Jonathan Swift, The Presbyterians Plea of Merit:
Figuratively, In “worm out of” To drag out of, to get information that someone is reluctant or unwilling to give (through artful or devious means or by pleading or asking repeatedly).
- They[…]wormed things out of me that I had no desire to tell.1849 May – 1850 November, Charles Dickens, chapter 17, in The Personal History of David Copperfield, London: Bradbury & Evans, […], published 1850, →OCLC:
- He nodded. "Mum's the word, Mrs. Bunting! It'll all be in the last editions of the evening newspapers—it can't be kep' out. There'd be too much of a row if twas!" "Are you going off to that public-house now?" she asked. "I've got a awk'ard job—to try and worm something out of the barmaid."1913, Mrs. [Marie] Belloc Lowndes, chapter XXII, in The Lodger, London: Methuen, →OCLC; republished in Novels of Mystery: The Lodger; The Story of Ivy; What Really Happened, New York, N.Y.: Longmans, Green and Co., […], [1933], →OCLC, page 1738:
- Worm and parcel with the lay; turn and serve the other way.
- Ropes[…]are generally wormed before they are served.1841, Benjamin J. Totten, Naval Text-Book:
To deworm (an animal).
To cut the worm, or lytta, from under the tongue of (a dog, etc.) for the purpose of checking a disposition to gnaw, and 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.1815 February 24, [Walter Scott], Guy Mannering; or, The Astrologer. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; and Archibald Constable and Co., […], →OCLC:
To clean by means of a worm; to draw a wad or cartridge from, as a firearm.
- Related terms
- caterpillar, grub, lumbricine, maggot, Trojan horse, vermian, vermiform, virus