worm

10 definitions • 13 examples

a small animal with a long, narrow, soft body without arms, legs, or bones:

The kiwi bird eats worms, other invertebrates, and berries.

the young of particular types of insect:

It's distressing enough to find a worm in your apple but finding half of one is worse.

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:

a parasitic worm

The vet says our dog has worms.

an unpleasant person who does not deserve respect:

Don't be such a worm. You don't have to lie to me.

a harmful computer program that can copy itself and spread across a number of connected computers:

The operating system left servers susceptible to viruses and worms.

The software promises to protect you from the most pervasive worm attacks.

to succeed in moving along in a difficult or crowded situation, by moving your body slowly and carefully:

Because he was so small, he could worm (his way) through the crowd.

She wormed herself under the fence.

to give an animal, especially a pet dog or cat, medicine to kill any worms that might be living inside it:

Has your dog been wormed?

a small animal with a long, narrow, soft body without legs or bones

to move slowly or carefully through a crowd or tight space:

He wormed his way through the crowd as quickly as he could.

fig. He was a distant relation who wormed his way into the confidence of the family.

a computer program that can send copies of itself to other computers and is designed to prevent the computers from working normally:

When users click an infected attachment, the worm opens a "back door" that hackers can use.