worm

(wûrm)

1. Any of various invertebrates, as those of the phyla Annelida, Nematoda, Nemertea, or Platyhelminthes, having a long, flexible, rounded or flattened body, often without obvious appendages.
2. Any of various crawling insect larvae, such as a grub or a caterpillar, having a soft elongated body.
3. Any of various unrelated animals, such as the shipworm or the slowworm, resembling a worm in habit or appearance.
4. 1. Something, such as the thread of a screw or the spiral condenser in a still, that resembles a worm in form or appearance.
   2. The spirally threaded shaft of a worm gear.
5. An insidiously tormenting or devouring force: "felt the black worm of treachery growing in his heart" (Mario Puzo).
6. A person regarded as pitiable or contemptible.
7. worms Pathology. Infestation of the intestines or other parts of the body with worms or wormlike parasites; helminthiasis.
8. Computer Science. A malicious program that replicates itself until it fills all of the storage space on a drive or network.

1. To make (one's way) with or as if with the sinuous crawling motion of a worm.
2. To work (one's way or oneself) subtly or gradually; insinuate: She wormed her way into his confidence.
3. To elicit by artful or devious means. Usually used with out of: wormed a confession out of the suspect.
4. To cure of intestinal worms.
5. Nautical. To wrap yarn or twine spirally around (rope).

1. To move in a manner suggestive of a worm.
2. To make one's way by artful or devious means: He can't worm out of this situation.

[Middle English, from Old English wurm, variant of wyrm.]

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(1) A destructive program that replicates itself throughout a single computer or across a network, both wired and wireless. It can do damage by sheer reproduction, consuming internal disk and memory resources within a single computer or by exhausting network bandwidth. It can also deposit a Trojan that turns a computer into a zombie for spam and other malicious purposes. Very often, the terms "worm" and "virus" are used synonymously; however, worm implies an automatic method for reproducing itself in other computers. See virus, logic bomb, smartphone virus, Stuxnet, Worm.ExploreZip virus and Morris worm.

(2) A program that moves through a network and deposits information at each node for diagnostic purposes or causes idle computers to share some of the processing workload. See ethical worm.

(3) (WORM) (Write Once Read Many) An optical disc that can be recorded only once. Updating requires destroying the existing data (all 0s made 1s), and writing new data to an unused part of the disk.

There are two kinds of WORM technologies. Ablative large-format (12-14") WORM is the traditional type, which makes a permanent change in the optical material. Continuous composite write (CCW) WORM is a mode in multifunction 5.25" optical (MO) drives that emulates a WORM drive. The data are not permanently changed, but the drive contains firmware that ensures that recorded areas are not rewritten. See optical disc.

WORM Cartridges

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verb

1. To move or proceed with short irregular motions up and down or from side to side: squiggle, squirm, waggle, wiggle, wriggle, writhe. See move/halt, repetition.
2. To move along in a crouching or prone position: crawl, creep, slide, snake. See move/halt.
3. To introduce gradually and slyly: edge, foist, infiltrate, insinuate, wind², work. See enter/exit.
4. To make, achieve, or get through contrivance or guile: engineer, finesse. Informal finagle, wangle. See get/lose, make/unmake.

Idioms beginning with worm:
worm into
worm out of
worm turns, the

See also can of worms; early bird catches the worm.

[from tapeworm in John Brunner's novel The Shockwave Rider, via XEROX PARC] A program that propagates itself over a network, reproducing itself as it goes. Compare virus. Nowadays the term has negative connotations, as it is assumed that only crackers write worms. Perhaps the best-known example was Robert T. Morris's Great Worm of 1988, a ‘benign’ one that got out of control and hogged hundreds of Suns and VAXen across the U.S. See also cracker, RTM, Trojan horse, ice.

The term worm is used metaphorically in some common English expressions to represent weakness and sneakiness, as in "he wormed his way into the group" or "what a worm he turned out to be." The worm also symbolizes bait and rich, fertile soil.

In the context of veterinary science, endoparasitic helminths.

• Worms - worm: any slender, soft-bodied, legless, symmetrical invertebrate, often segmented, that lives underground, in water, or as a parasite, esp. an insect larva
• Machinery and Mechanical Devices - worm: screw conveyor
• Building and Machine Parts - worm: rotating shaft or cylinder cut with helical threads
• Software, Languages, and Programming - worm: computer virus that spreads from one computer to another over a network, etc.
• Mood and Intent - worm: creep along in a devious, stealthy manner
• Behavior or Personality
• Morality or Character
• Shapes - worm: irregular spiral or tube; vermiculate; zigzag

For other uses, see Worm (disambiguation).

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Look up worm in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Lumbricus terrestris, the common earthworm.

Eupolymnia crasscornis in Kona, Hawaii.

An inchworm.

The term worm (pronounced /ˈwɜrm/) refers to an obsolete taxon (vermes) used by Carolus Linnaeus and Jean-Baptiste Lamarck for all non-arthropod invertebrate animals, and stems from the Old English word wyrm. Currently it is used to describe many different distantly-related animals that typically have a long cylindrical tube-like body and no legs. Most animals called "worms" are invertebrates, but the term is also used for the amphibian caecilians and the slow worm Anguis, a legless burrowing lizard. Invertebrate animals commonly called "worms" include annelids (earthworms), nematodes (roundworms), flatworms, marine polychaete worms (bristle worms), marine nemertean worms ("bootlace worms"), marine Chaetognatha (arrow worms) and insect larvae such as caterpillars, grubs, and maggots. Historical English-speaking cultures have used the (now deprecated) terms worm, Wurm, or wyrm to describe carnivorous reptiles ("serpents"), and the related mythical beasts dragons.

Worms vary in size from microscopic to over 1 metre (3.3 ft) in length for marine polychaete worms (bristle worms),^[1] 6.7 metres (22 ft) for the African giant earthworm, Microchaetus,^[2] and 55 metres (180 ft) for the marine nemertean worm (bootlace worm), Lineus longissimus.^[3]

Various types of worm occupy a small variety of parasitic niches, living inside the bodies of other animals. Free-living worm species may live on land, in marine or freshwater environments, or burrow.

Contents 1 Distribution and habitat 2 Classification 3 Characteristics 4 Image in mythology, literature, and art 5 See also 6 References

Distribution and habitat

Worms live in almost all parts of the world including marine, freshwater, and terrestrial habitats. Some worms living in the ground help to condition the soil (e.g., annelids, aschelminths). Many thrive as parasites of plants (e.g., aschelminths) and animals, including humans (e.g., platyhelminths, aschelminths). Several other worms may be free-living, or nonparasitic. There are worms that live in freshwater, seawater, and even on the seashore. Ecologically, worms form an important link in the food chains in virtually all the ecosystems of the world.

Classification

In everyday language, the term worm is also applied to various other living forms such as larvae, insects, centipedes, shipworms (teredo worms), or even some vertebrates (creatures with a backbone) such as blindworms and caecilians. Worms can be divided into several groups, but are still technically decomposers.

• The first of these, Platyhelminthes, includes the flatworms, tapeworms, and flukes. They have a flat, ribbon- or leaf-shaped body with a pair of eyes at the front. Some are parasites.
• The second group contains the threadworms, roundworms, and hookworms. This phylum is called Nematoda. Threadworms may be microscopic, such as the vinegar eelworm, or more than 1 metre (3 feet) long. They are found in damp earth, moss, decaying substances, fresh water, or salt water. Some roundworms are also parasites. The Guinea worm, for example, gets under the skin of the feet and legs of people living in tropical countries.
• The third group consists of the segmented worms, with bodies divided into segments, or rings. This phylum is called Annelida. Among these are the earthworms and the bristle worms of the sea.

In earlier taxonomic classification, all the above were included in the now obsolete group Vermes.

There are hundreds of thousands of species that live in a wide variety of habitats other than soil. Over time this broad definition narrowed to the modern definition, although this still includes several different animal groups. Phyla that include worms include:

• Annelida (segmented worms)
• Arthropoda (inchworms, sometimes called "canker worms")
• Chaetognatha (arrow worms)
• Gnathostomulid (jaw worms)
• Hemichordata (acorn/tongue worms)
• Nematoda (roundworms)
• Nematomorpha (horsehair worms)
• Nemertea (ribbonworms)
• Onychophora (velvet worms)
• Phoronida (horseshoe worms)
• Platyhelminthes (flatworms)
• Priapulida (phallus worms)
• Sipuncula (peanut worms)

Earthworm

To most people the most familiar worms^{[citation needed]} are the earthworms, members of phylum Annelida. Earthworms in general have been around for 120 million years, and are theorized^{[who?][citation needed]} to have evolved during the time of the dinosaurs. They enrich and aerate the soil; Charles Darwin found that worms turn over the top six inches (15 cm) of topsoil every 20 years in a field near where he lived. In less favourable conditions, such as waterlogged soils or hard soil deficient in suitable organic matter, or in seasonally dry soils, they cannot achieve anything like that. They lack a brain in the sense of the vertebrate brain, but have nerve centers (called ganglia); they also lack eyes but can sense light with photoreceptors. Worms are hermaphrodites (both sexes in one animal) but can cross fertilize.

Other invertebrate groups may be called worms, especially colloquially. In particular, many unrelated insect larvae are called "worms", such as the railroad worm, woodworm, glowworm, bloodworm, inchworm, mealworm, silkworm, Wooly bear worm.

Worms may also be called helminths, particularly in medical terminology when referring to parasitic worms, especially the Nematoda (roundworms) and Cestoda (tapeworms). Hence "helminthology" is the study of parasitic worms. When an animal, such as a dog, is said to "have worms", it means that it is infested with parasitic worms, typically roundworms or tapeworms.

"Ringworm" is not a worm at all, but a skin fungus.

Characteristics

Paragordius tricuspidatus (Nematomorpha)

Worms usually have a cylindrical, flattened, or leaf-like body shape and are often without any true limbs or appendages. Instead, they may have bristles or fins that help them move. A few have light-sensing organs. Worms vary in size from less than 1 mm (0.04 inch) in certain aschelminths to more than 30 m (100 feet) in certain ribbon worms.

Some worms reproduce sexually. Hermaphroditism, the condition in which a single individual possesses both male and female reproductive parts, is common in many groups of worms. Asexual reproduction, whereby new individuals develop from the body cells of another, also occurs in some worms.

Worm species differ in their abilities to move about on their own. Many species have bodies with no major muscles, and cannot move on their own—they must be moved by forces or other animals in their environment. Many other species have bodies with major muscles and can move on their own; they are a type of muscular hydrostat. Many species of worms are decomposers; they break down dead plants and animals to return nutrients to the soil. They have also been known to infiltrate households feeding on food in the early stages of its decomposition namely breads and cheeses.

Earthworms split into three different categories. The first are the surface dwellers, the Epigeic worms. Then there are the upper soil worms, the Endogeic worms. Finally,there are the deep burrowing species, the Anecic.

Image in mythology, literature, and art

See also: List of fictional worms and Fictional depictions of worms

Worms are sometimes used as a metaphor of putrefaction or corruption; a corpse may be said to be "fed to the worms".

The word "worm" and its cognates "wyrm" were used for dragons in medieval European languages, and by extension for Satan, Hell, or death.^{[citation needed]}

Egyptian empress Cleopatra reportedly made it a crime to kill worms in Egypt in 50 BCE due to their contribution to agriculture.^{[citation needed]}

Examples:

• Hamlet, Shakespeare
• Twelfth Night, Shakespeare
• The Battleship Potemkin
• "The Conqueror Worm", a poem in Edgar Allan Poe's short story "Ligeia"
• "The Festival", a short story by H. P. Lovecraft
• The Wall, Pink Floyd. Worms are used to represent the main character's slipping grasp on reality, and are "eating into his brain"
• In J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth psuedo-mythology, "worm" (and "drake") is a term for dragon

See also

• Sea worm, lists various types of marine worms
• Vermicompost
• Worm cast
• Worm charming

References

1. ^ Superstar Worm. "Cornwall - Nature - Superstar Worm". BBC. http://www.bbc.co.uk/cornwall/content/articles/2009/04/07/nature_worm_feature.shtml. Retrieved 2010-03-04. 
2. ^ Worm Digest - The Mighty Worm
3. ^ Carwardine, M. 1995. The Guinness Book of Animal Records. Guinness Publishing. p. 232.

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

Dansk (Danish)
n. - orm, kryb, snekke, skruegænge
v. tr. - orme, lirke, liste, rense
v. intr. - sno sig, krybe, kravle

idioms:

• even a worm will turn    selv den sagtmodigste kan man plage så længe at han bider fra sig
• worm one's way    orme sig vej, lirke sig vej
• worm out of    lirke sig ud af

abbr. - Write Once, Read Many; optisk diskette til lagring

Nederlands (Dutch)
worm, wormwiel, ontwormen, kruipen

Français (French)
n. - (Zool) ver, (Méd, Vét) ver (intestinal), vermine (fam), (Comput) disque inscriptible une seule fois, (Comput) virus, (Tech) vis sans fin
v. tr. - (Méd, Vét) donner un vermifuge à, (lit) se faufiler (le long de), (fig) s'insinuer (dans)
v. intr. - ramper, avancer en rampant, (fig) s'insinuer dans, ruser

idioms:

• even a worm will turn    en avoir assez de se faire marcher dessus
• worm one's way    gagner les bonnes grâces de qn
• worm out of    arracher à (qn) (vérité)

abbr. - (abrév = write-once read-many), (Comput) disque optique qui ne peut être modifié une fois enregistré

Deutsch (German)
n. - Wurm
v. - sich schlängeln, entwurmen, sich einschleichen, herausholen aus, (mar.) schladden

idioms:

• even a worm will turn    auch der Wurm krümmt sich, wenn er getreten wird
• worm one's way    sich winden, sich zwängen
• worm out of    aus jmdm. herausbringen

abbr. - (EDV) WORM-Computerspeichermodul

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - (ζωολ., μτφ.) σκουλήκι, σπείρωμα κοχλία (κν. πάσο)
v. - απαλλάσσω από σκουλήκια, ξεσκουληκιάζω, έρπω, σέρνομαι, τρυπώνω

idioms:

• even a worm will turn    έχει και η υπομονή όρια
• worm one's way    σέρνομαι
• worm out of    αποσπώ (πληροφορίες) με συνεχείς ερωτήσεις

Italiano (Italian)
verme, strisciare

idioms:

• a can of worms    un serio pasticcio
• even a worm will turn    la pazienza ha un limite
• worm out of    carpire
• worm your way    insinuarsi

Português (Portuguese)
n. - minhoca (f), (fig.) miserável, serpentina (f) (Quím.)
v. - rastejar, obter ardilosamente

idioms:

• a can of worms    um verdadeiro ninho de vespas
• even a worm will turn    qualquer um reage
• worm out of    arrancar
• worm your way    avançar, descer

Русский (Russian)
червь, глист, гусеница, личинка, ничтожный человек, червячный винт, змеевик, ползти, пробираться ползком, вползать, очищать от червей, гнать глистов, копать червей

idioms:

• a can of worms    запутанное дело, куча неприятностей, "черт ногу сломит"
• even a worm will turn    "всякому терпению приходит конец"
• worm out of    выпытать, разузнать, отделаться, вытеснить, заполучить (что-л.), спихнуть
• worm your way    пробираться ползком, с трудом пробираться, примазываться

Español (Spanish)
n. - gusano, lombriz, tornillo sin fin, rosca
v. tr. - librar de gusanos o lombrices, quitar, entrañar
v. intr. - arrastrarse o deslizarse como un gusano

idioms:

• even a worm will turn    cuando la paciencia se agota o tiene un límite
• worm one's way    colarse, pasar arrastrándose
• worm out of    sonsacar, arrancar con artimañas

abbr. - WORM (tipo de dispositivo de memoria)

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - mask, larv, kryp, stackare, gängning, spiralrör
v. - slingra sig, lirka, pressa, rensa mask

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
复制保护程序

虫, 蚯蚓, 蠕虫, 使蠕行, 除虫, 慢慢地走, 蠕行, 慢慢前进

idioms:

• even a worm will turn    逼人太甚必有反抗
• worm one's way    慢慢地或悄悄地行进
• worm out of    把...挤出, 排挤

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
abbr. - 複製保護程式

n. - 蟲, 蚯蚓, 蠕蟲
v. tr. - 使蠕行, 除蟲, 慢慢地走
v. intr. - 蠕行, 慢慢前進

idioms:

• even a worm will turn    逼人太甚必有反抗
• worm one's way    慢慢地或悄悄地行進
• worm out of    把...擠出, 排擠

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 벌레, 벌레 같은 인간, 고통의 원인
v. tr. - 서서히 나아가다, 점점 기어 들어가게 하다, (비밀 따위를) 캐내다
v. intr. - 송충이처럼 움직이다, 교묘히 빌붙다, (금속 따위 겉면에) 금이 가다

idioms:

• worm out of    곤란 할 때 물러나다, (약속을) 어기다, (문제에서) 몰래 도망치다

abbr. - write once, read many(한 번 적고 여러 번 읽어라-컴퓨터의 메모리 장치의 한 형태)

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 虫, 寄生虫, 寄生虫病, 苦痛の種, 虫けら同様の人間, 虐げられた人, 虫様構造, ねじ
v. - 徐々に進める, はい込ませる, から寄生虫を除く, 虫を駆除する, うまく取り入る, はうように進む, 這う

idioms:

• a can of worms    やっかいな問題, 複雑な事情
• can of worms    難問題
• worm out of    から退く
• worm your way    くねくね進む

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) دودة, حشرة, داء الديدان, أسنان اللولب (فعل) يتمعج, يتسلل, يتملص‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮תולעת, שלשול, תולעת-אדם, שפל, פחדן, תבריג, הברגה‬
v. tr. - ‮תילע, השמיד/הרחיק תולעים, חדר‬
v. intr. - ‮זחל, הזדחל, התפתל‬
abbr. - ‮כתוב פעם - קרא פעמים רבות (מיתקן-זיכרון מיוחד במחשב)‬

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