英语词汇“worm”的英英意思、用法、释义、翻译、读音、例句、短语、词组-英语词典

worm

(wɜːʳm )

Word forms: worms , worming , wormed

1. countable noun B2

A worm is a small animal with a long thin body, no bones and no legs.

2. plural noun

If animals or people have worms, worms are living in their intestines.

3. verb

If you worm an animal, you give it medicine in order to kill the worms that are living in its intestines.

I worm all my birds in early spring. [VERB noun]

All adult dogs are routinely wormed at least every six months. [be VERB-ed]

4. verb

If you worm your way somewhere, you move there with difficulty, twisting or bending your body or making it narrow.

I had to worm my way out sideways from the bench in a ridiculous, undignified fashion. [V way adv/prep]

The kitten wormed its way through the just-open door. [V way adv/prep]

5. verb

If you say that someone is worming their way to success, or is worming their way into someone else's affection, you disapprove of the way that they are gradually making someone trust them or like them, often in order to deceive them or gain some advantage. [disapproval]

She never misses a chance to worm her way into the public's hearts. [VERB noun preposition/adverb]

Everyone knows people who have wormed their way up on old school connections. [VERB way preposition/adverb]

6. singular noun

If you call a person a worm, you are insulting them by saying that they have a very weak or unpleasant character and you have no respect for them. [disapproval]

7. countable noun

A worm is a computer program that contains a virus which duplicates itself many times in a network. [computing]

8. a can of worms phrase

If you say that someone is opening a can of worms, you are warning them that they are planning to do or talk about something which is much more complicated, unpleasant, or difficult than they realize and which might be better left alone.

You've opened up a whole new can of worms here, I think.

His recently published autobiography opened a fresh can of worms.

9. the worm turns phrase [VERB inflects]

If you say that the worm turns, you mean that someone who usually obeys another person or accepts their bad behaviour unexpectedly starts resisting that person or expresses their anger.

There is a lot of anger here and the worm is turning.

Phrasal verbs:

worm out of

phrasal verb

If you worm information out of someone, you gradually find it out by constantly asking them about it.

It took me weeks to worm the facts out of him. [VERB noun PARTICLE PARTICLE noun]

It didn't take long before she'd wormed out of him confessions of his other infidelity. [V P P n n (not pron)]

Idioms:

the early bird catches the worm

said to mean that if someone wants to do something successfully then they should start as soon as they can

If you're going to make it to the Senate, you need to start right now. The early bird catches the worm.

the worm has turned

said to mean that someone who has tolerated a lot of bad treatment from other people without complaining unexpectedly changes their behaviour and starts to behave in a more forceful way

Then my mother came home and started bossing us around. She said, `The worm has turned. Things are going to be different around here.'

Collocations:

computer worm

However, instead of words of affection, those who opened the attachment received a destructive, self-spreading computer worm.

Times,Sunday Times

In 2002, his open relay, along with 24 others, was used by a computer worm to propagate.