Search the Dictionary

A genus of freshwater leeches, furnished with a proboscis. They feed upon mollusks and worms.

A thickened glandular portion of the body of the adult earthworm, consisting of several united segments modified for reproductive purposes.

il (Zoöl.) a small weevil (Apion apricans), that destroys the seeds of clover. -- Clover worm (Zoöl.), the larva of a small moth (Asopia costalis), often very destructive to clover hay. -- In clover, in very pleasant circumstances; fortunate. [Colloq.] - - Sweet clover. See Meliot.

ich the silkworn lies in its chrysalis state. It is formed of threads of silk spun by the worm just before leaving the larval state. From these the silk of commerce is prepared.

A building or apartment for silkworms, when feeding and forming cocoons.

oöl.), a small moth (Carpocapsa Pomonella), which in the larval state (known as the apple worm) lives in apples, often doing great damage to the crop.

The larval stage of a tapeworm (Tænia coenurus) which forms bladderlike sacs in the brain of sheep, causing the fatal disease known as water brain, vertigo, staggers or gid.

Mutual discourse of two or more persons; conference; conversation. They went to Worms, to the colloquy there about religion. A. Wood.

r cystic tumor, common on the nose, etc., which on pressure allows the escape of a yellow wormlike mass of retained oily secretion, with a black head (dirt).

Hollow; void of contents. [R.] As concave . . . as a worm-eaten nut. Shak.

The act of concealing; the state of being concealed. But let concealment, like a worm i' the bud, Feed on her damask cheek. Shak. Some dear cause Will in concealment wrap me up awhile. Shak.

u hast, they [the Neboites] would have converted. Latimer. A red dust which converth into worms. Sandys. The public hope And eye to thee converting. Thomson.

o make the noise of the cuckoo. [Obs. or R.] Constant cuckoos cook on every side. The Silkworms (1599).

A disorder of sheep occasioned by worms in the liver. [Prov. Eng.] Halliwell.

To move slowly by drawing the body along the ground, as a worm; to move slowly on hands and kness; to creep. A worm finds what it searches after only by feeling, as it crawls from one thing to another. Grew.

To move along the ground, or on any other surface, on the belly, as a worm or reptile; to move as a child on the hands and knees; to crawl. Ye that walk The earth, and stately tread, or lowly creep. Milton.

Having the shape of a gourd seed; -- said of certain small worms.

moth (Ægeria tipuliformis) and a longicorn beetle (Psenocerus supernotatus). -- Currant worm (Zoöl.), an insect larva which eats the leaves or fruit of the currant. The most injurious are the currant sawfly (Nematus ventricosus), introduced from Europe, and the spanworm (Eufitchia ribearia). The fruit worms are the l…

m the gall bladder which unites with the hepatic to form the common bile duct. -- Cystic worm (Zoöl.), a larval tape worm, as the cysticercus and echinococcus.

The larval form of a tapeworm, having the head and neck of a tapeworm attached to a saclike body filled with fluid; -- called also bladder worm, hydatid, and measle (as, pork measle).