Definition of "worm" []

• 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. (noun)
• Any of various crawling insect larvae, such as a grub or a caterpillar, having a soft elongated body. (noun)
• Any of various unrelated animals, such as the shipworm or the slowworm, resembling a worm in habit or appearance. (noun)
• Something, such as the thread of a screw or the spiral condenser in a still, that resembles a worm in form or appearance. (noun)
• The spirally threaded shaft of a worm gear. (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.

• "To add to the confusion, Mondino dei Luzzi (1306) described the choroid plexus in the lateral ventricles as a worm which can open and close the passage between the anterior and middle ventricles, with the result that, in the late Middle Ages, the term ˜worm™ could refer to no less than three different parts of the brain: the vermis of the cerebellum, the pineal body and the choroid plexus"
• "This is a worm "_sui generis_," the mode of its propagation being entirely unknown; and from its being the only living creature (man excepted) that will devour this plant, [B] it is called "_tobacco worm_.""
• "_Man that is a worm, and the son of man, which is a worm_. ""