Definition of "teredo" [te•re•do]

• A shipworm of the genus Teredo. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "We have found, however, that a little marine wretch called the teredo attacks hemp so greedily that we've had to invent a new compound wherewith to coat it, namely, ground flint or silica, pitch, and tar, which gives the teredo the toothache, I suppose, for it turns him off effectually."
• "Around the same time, an invasive worm called the teredo ravaged the docks and pilings along the waterfront, and periodic fires wiped out most of the buildings."
• "This process took years, as the polyethylene glycol soaked into the wood and replaced the fibers of the wood lost to the ocean. unlike many ship wreck the Vasa was not attacked by teredo worms the bane to wooden ships before the advent of affixing a copper bottom."