Dictionary

woodworm en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (US) audio

Etymology

From wood + worm.

Meanings

1. (countable, uncountable) Any of many beetle larvae that bore into wood.
   • New Alresford is constantly mispronounced, T-shaped, honeycombed with cellars, packed with antique shops, riddled with woodworm, surrounded by watercress. The name - which means 'ford by the alders' - is pronounced 'Allsford'; and no one ever uses 'New', though they do call the adjoining village Old Alresford. 1980, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 144:
   • 1599, Simon Harward, “A Displaying of the wilfull deuises of wicked and vaine worldlings” in Three Sermons, London: Richard Johns, […] Chrisostome doth compaire enuie to the wood worm which though it doe breede in the tymber, yet it doth consume & waste the tymber, as enuie springing of the heart doth putrifie and vtterly eat vp the heart.
   • His father met a man who said that he had the figure from a ship which went aground near Blackwater Head. It would have to be treated for woodworm, he said. 1992, Colm Tóibín, chapter 2, in The Heather Blazing, Penguin, published 1994, page 25:
   • 1872, Robert Louis Stevenson, letter to Mrs. Thomas Stevenson dated July 29, 1872, in Sidney Colvin (editor), The Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson, New York: Scribner, 1917, Volume I, p. 45, There was only one contretemps during the whole interview—the arrival of another visitor, in the shape (surely) the last of God’s creatures, a wood-worm of the most unnatural and hideous appearance, with one great striped horn stucking out of his nose like a boltsprit. If there are many wood-worms in Germany, I shall come home.
2. (countable, qualifier:particularly, uncountable) Any of many beetle larvae that bore into wood. ▸ Anobium punctatum (common furniture beetle).
3. (countable, uncountable) A shipworm, a worm-like mollusk in the family Teredinidae that feeds on wood underwater in saltwater.

Forms

Deriveds

woodwormy · woodwormed

Hyponyms

deathwatch beetle (any wood-boring beetle larvae)

Synonyms

furniture beetle (Anobium punctatum)

Translations (39)

cmn 蛀蟲 /蛀虫 (larvae that bore into wood) · grc θρῑ́ψ (larvae that bore into wood) · hu szú (larvae that bore into wood) · la tarmes (larvae that bore into wood) · sah мас үөнэ (larvae that bore into wood) · es quera (larvae that bore into wood) · gl couza (larvae that bore into wood) · gl caruncho (larvae that bore into wood) · gl corta (larvae that bore into wood) · tr ağaç kurdu (larvae that bore into wood) · ota آغاج قوردی (larvae that bore into wood) · nci cuauhocuilin (larvae that bore into wood) · la terēdō (larvae that bore into wood) · scn cagnolu (larvae that bore into wood) · de Holzwurm (larvae that bore into wood) · cy pryf pren (larvae that bore into wood) · ast coroyu (larvae that bore into wood) · kw pryv prenn (larvae that bore into wood) · es polilla (larvae that bore into wood) · cs červotoč (larvae that bore into wood) · fi jumi (larvae that bore into wood) · gl broca (larvae that bore into wood) · nl houtworm (larvae that bore into wood) · grc ἴ̄ψ (larvae that bore into wood) · gl trilla (larvae that bore into wood) · pl kornik (larvae that bore into wood) · mns-nor сӯр (larvae that bore into wood) · it tarlo (larvae that bore into wood) · zlw-ocs dřěvotoč (larvae that bore into wood) · ast poliya (larvae that bore into wood) · ru точи́льщик (larvae that bore into wood) · gl rela (larvae that bore into wood) · zlw-ocs črvotoč (larvae that bore into wood) · scn càmula (larvae that bore into wood) · ja 木食い虫 (larvae that bore into wood) · es carcoma (larvae that bore into wood) · bg дървояд (larvae that bore into wood) · gl traza (larvae that bore into wood) · cmn 木蛀蟲 /木蛀虫 (larvae that bore into wood)