Dictionary

wormling en · NOUN

Etymology

From worm + -ling. Compare Icelandic yrmlingur (“wormling”).

Meanings

1. A small or young worm.
   • O dusty wormling! dar'st thou strive and stand / With Heav'ns high Monarch? 1608, [Guillaume de Salluste] Du Bartas, translated by Josuah Sylvester, Du Bartas His Deuine Weekes and Workes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Humfrey Lownes [and are to be sold by Arthur Iohnson […]], published 1611, →OCLC:
2. (broadly) Any weak, mean, or lowly creature.
   • But I am a wormling, and not a man; the scorn of men, and derision of the people. 1797, Alexander Geddes, A New Translation of the Book of Psalms, published 1807:

Forms