wormnoun
uk/wɜːm/us/wɝːm/worm noun (CREATURE)
B2 [ C ] a small animal with a long, narrow, soft body without arms, legs, or bones:
[ C ] the young of particular types of insect:
[ C ] a type of worm that lives in an animal's intestine, feeding on the food there, or on an animal's body, feeding off its blood:
[ S ] informal old-fashioned an unpleasant person who does not deserve respect:
More examples
- A grub looks like a short fat worm.
- We had to dissect a worm and a frog in our biology practical today.
- The child touched the worm with a twig.
- A large worm wriggled in the freshly dug earth.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Worms, snails, slugs & similar animals
- annelid
- centipede
- earthworm
- flatworm
- gastropod
- leech
- millepede
- millipede
- nematode
- roundworm
- slug
- snail
- tapeworm
- woodlouse
You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:
worm noun (COMPUTING)
[ C ] a harmful computer program that can copy itself and spread across a number of connected computers:
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Computer programming & software
- abandonware
- ad-blocker
- ad-blocking
- adware
- alpha
- analytics
- CD-RW
- compile
- killer app
- lisp
- LMS
- low-level language
- macro
- mashup
- MS-DOS
- patch
- procedure
- shortcut
- systems analyst
- virtual memory
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Idiom(s)
wormverb
uk/wɜːm/us/wɝːm/worm verb (MOVE)
[ I or T, + prep ] to succeed in moving along in a difficult or crowded situation, by moving your body slowly and carefully:
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Slow and moving slowly
- at a snail's pace idiom
- by and by idiom
- by degrees idiom
- claw your way (somewhere) idiom
- clunky
- drift
- float
- hang around
- in ones and twos idiom
- inch by inch idiom
- infiltrate
- infiltration
- labour
- mill
- slowpoke
- sluggish
- snail
- steadily
- steady
- struggle
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worm verb (ANIMAL)
[ T ] to give an animal, especially a pet dog or cat, medicine to kill any worms that might be living inside it:
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Zoology: veterinary medicine
- alter
- anthrax
- castrate
- cattery
- collar
- delouse
- destroy
- distemper
- foot-and-mouth
- froth
- geld
- hoof-and-mouth
- leptospirosis
- myxomatosis
- put sth down 1
- quarantine
- rabid
- rabies
- vet
- veterinarian
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