Mawworm en · NOUN
Etymology
The name of a character in the play The Hypocrite (1768) by Isaac Bickerstaffe; from maw-worm.
Meanings
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(archaic) A hypocrite.
Troublemakers come in splendid variety - from the catamaran, or quarrelsome scold, to the solopsist, or self-absorbed, self-referential me addict; from the blateroon, or compulsive chatterbox, to the mawworm, or pious, mealy-mouthed hypocrite.
1986 December 12, The Ottawa Citizen, page E8:That there are a sufficient number of Mawworms and Cantwells in the profession, is abundantly proved by the number of signatures obtained to the petition against opening the Crystal Palace on Sundays.
1853 - "Editor's letter box", Provincial Medical and Surgical Journal, vol.1 (new series), no.49, p.1090, 9 December 1853He felt that he had chosen the one who was in all respects the superior; and a man naturally likes to look forward to having the best. He would be the very Mawworm of bachelors who pretended not to expect it.
1871, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter II, in Middlemarch […], volume I, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, book I, page 30:So, according to this Mawworm, it is not the play itself but its being acted publicly that is so pernicious.
1862 March 15, “Military mawwormism”, in Punch, page 103:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mawworms | Number=Plur | lexicographic |