worm.
A generally tubular invertebrate of the annelid phylum; an earthworm.
Meaning & usage
A generally tubular invertebrate of the annelid phylum; an earthworm.
More loosely, any of various tubular invertebrates resembling annelids but not closely related to them, such as velvet worms, acorn worms, flatworms, or roundworms. See Appendix:English worms.
Any creeping or crawling animal, such as a snake (cf. “dragon”; blindworm, slowworm, “legless lizard”), snail, or caterpillar.
Any creeping or crawling animal, such as a snake (cf. “dragon”; blindworm, slowworm, “legless lizard”), snail, or caterpillar. A maggot or any other insect larva with similar shape and behavior.
Those little wriggling worms are the larvae of flies who laid eggs here.
A dragon, today especially Germanic dragon, more often of the serpentine or wingless type, for example sea serpent, but also any kind of dragon.
A dragon, today especially Germanic dragon, more often of the serpentine or wingless type, for example sea serpent, but also any kind of dragon. Either a mythical "dragon" (especially wingless), a gigantic sea serpent, or a creature that resembles a Mongolian death worm.
A contemptible or devious being.
Don't try to run away, you little worm!
A self-replicating program that propagates through a network by copying itself, differing from a virus which seeks to propagate by inserting its code into other executable files.
When Trevor opened his email, a worm spread to 100 people in his address book.
A graphical representation of the total runs scored across a number of overs.
Anything helical, especially the thread of a screw.
Anything helical, especially the thread of a screw. A spiral instrument or screw, often like a double corkscrew, used for drawing balls from firearms.
Anything helical, especially the thread of a screw. The spiral wire of a corkscrew.
Anything helical, especially the thread of a screw. A muscular band in the tongue of some animals, such as dogs; the lytta.
Anything helical, especially the thread of a screw. The condensing tube of a still, often curved and wound to save space.
Anything helical, especially the thread of a screw. A short revolving screw whose threads drive, or are driven by, a worm wheel or rack by gearing into its teeth.
An internal tormentor; something that gnaws or afflicts one’s mind with remorse.
A strip of linked tiles sharing parallel edges in a tiling.
The lytta.
A dance, or dance move, in which the dancer lies on the floor and undulates the body horizontally thereby moving forwards.
Where this word comes from
Etymology tree Proto-Germanic *wurmiz Proto-West Germanic *wurmi Old English wyrm Middle English worm English worm 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”).
To make (one's way) with a crawling motion.
We wormed our way through the underbrush.
To move with one's body dragging the ground.
To work one's way by artful or devious means.
To work (one's way or oneself) (into) gradually or slowly; to insinuate.
He wormed his way into the organization.
To effect, remove, drive, draw, or the like, by slow and secret means.
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).
To fill in the contlines of (a rope) before parcelling and serving.
Worm and parcel with the lay; turn and serve the other way.
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.
To clean by means of a worm; to draw a wad or cartridge from, as a firearm.
Where this word comes from
Etymology tree Proto-Germanic *wurmiz Proto-West Germanic *wurmi Old English wyrm Middle English worm English worm 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”).
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.