Worms

UK: English: /wɜːmz/, German: /vɔrms/

US: (wûrmz; Ger. vôrms)

WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2025

Worms  (wûrmz; Ger. vôrms), n. 

1. Place Names a city in E Rhineland-Palatinate, in SW Germany. 71,827.
2. World History Diet of, the council, or diet, held here (1521) at which Luther was condemned as a heretic.

Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::

Worms / wɜːmz vɔrms/ noun

1. a city in SW Germany, in Rhineland-Palatinate on the Rhine: famous as the seat of imperial diets, notably that of 1521, before which Luther defended his doctrines in the presence of Charles V; river port and manufacturing centre with a large wine trade. Pop: 81 100 (2003 est)

WordReference Random House Learner's Dictionary of American English © 2025

worm /wɜrm/   n. [countable]

1. Zoology a long, soft-bodied, legless creature without a backbone, as the earthworm.
2. Informal Terms a low, worthless, contemptible person.
3. Pathology, Veterinary Diseases worms, [uncountable* used with a singular verb] a disorder caused by worms that live in the intestines of humans and animals and that consume food meant for the person or animal.

v. [~ + object]

4. to creep, crawl, or move slowly, as into a tight or small space:
   She wormed herself through the tunnel.
5. to attain or gain sneakily or indirectly:
   He wormed the secret out of his sister.
6. to free (a person or an animal) from intestinal worms.

worm•y, adj.,  -i•er, -i•est.  

WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2025

worm  (wûrm), n. 

1. Zoology any of numerous long, slender, soft-bodied, legless, bilaterally symmetrical invertebrates, including the flatworms, roundworms, acanthocephalans, nemerteans, gordiaceans, and annelids.
2. (loosely) any of numerous small creeping animals with more or less slender, elongated bodies, and without limbs or with very short ones, including individuals of widely differing kinds, as earthworms, tapeworms, insect larvae, and adult forms of some insects.
3. something resembling or suggesting a worm in appearance, movement, etc.
4. Informal Terms a groveling, abject, or contemptible person.
5. Mechanical Engineering the spiral pipe in which the vapor is condensed in a still.
6. Building (not in technical use) See screw thread (def. 1).
7. Building See screw conveyor. 
8. Mechanical Engineering a rotating cylinder or shaft, cut with one or more helical threads, that engages with and drives a worm wheel.
9. something that penetrates, injures, or consumes slowly or insidiously, like a gnawing worm.
10. Pathology, Veterinary Diseases worms, (used with a sing. v.)any disease or disorder arising from the presence of parasitic worms in the intestines or other tissues;
    helminthiasis.
11. Metallurgy (used with a pl. v.) irregularities visible on the surfaces of some metals subject to plastic deformation.
12. Zoology the lytta of a dog or other carnivorous animal.
13. Computing computer code planted illegally in a software program so as to destroy data in any system that downloads the program, as by reformatting the hard disk.

v.i. 

14. to move or act like a worm;
    creep, crawl, or advance slowly or stealthily.
15. to achieve something by insidious procedure (usually fol. by into):
    to worm into another's favor.
16. Metallurgy craze (def. 8a).

v.t. 

17. to cause to move or advance in a devious or stealthy manner:
    The thief wormed his hand into my coat pocket.
18. to get by persistent, insidious efforts (usually fol. by out or from):
    to worm a secret out of a person.
19. to insinuate (oneself or one's way) into another's favor, confidence, etc.:
    to worm his way into the king's favor.
20. to free from worms:
    He wormed the puppies.
21. Nautical to wind yarn or the like spirally round (a rope) so as to fill the spaces between the strands and render the surface smooth.

• bef. 900; Middle English (noun, nominal); Old English wyrm, dragon, serpent, worm; cognate with Dutch worm, German Wurm, Old Norse ormr; akin to Latin vermis

worm′er, n. 
worm′like′, worm′ish, adj. 

Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::

worms / wɜːmz/ noun

1. (functioning as singular) any disease or disorder, usually of the intestine, characterized by infestation with parasitic worms

Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::

worm / wɜːm/ noun

1. any of various invertebrates, esp the annelids (earthworms, etc), nematodes (roundworms), and flatworms, having a slender elongated body
2. any of various insect larvae having an elongated body, such as the silkworm and wireworm
3. any of various unrelated animals that resemble annelids, nematodes, etc, such as the glow-worm and shipworm
4. a gnawing or insinuating force or agent that torments or slowly eats away
5. a wretched or spineless person
6. anything that resembles a worm in appearance or movement
7. a shaft on which a helical groove has been cut, as in a gear arrangement in which such a shaft meshes with a toothed wheel
8. a spiral pipe cooled by air or flowing water, used as a condenser in a still
9. a program that duplicates itself many times in a network and prevents its destruction. It often carries a logic bomb or virus

verb

1. to move, act, or cause to move or act with the slow sinuous movement of a worm
2. followed by in, into, out of, etc: to make (one's way) slowly and stealthily; insinuate (oneself)
3. (tr; often followed by out of or from) to extract (information, a secret, etc) from by persistent questioning
4. (transitive) to free from or purge of worms

Etymology: Old English wyrm; related to Old Frisian wirm, Old High German wurm, Old Norse ormr, Gothic waurms, Latin vermis, Greek romos woodworm

ˈwormer noun

ˈwormˌlike, ˈwormish adjective