Diccionario ingles.comDiccionario ingles.com
Synonyms, antonyms, pronunciation

  Home
English Dictionary      examples: 'day', 'get rid of', 'New York Bay'




Worm   Listen
verb
Worm  v. i.  (past & past part. wormed; pres. part. worming)  To work slowly, gradually, and secretly. "When debates and fretting jealousy Did worm and work within you more and more, Your color faded."






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








Advanced search
     Find words:
Starting with
Ending with
Containing
Matching a pattern  

Synonyms
Antonyms
Quotes
Words linked to  

only single words



Share |





"Worm" Quotes from Famous Books



... emptiness. In bins, at one extremity of the cellar, were a number of bottles, whose thick mantle of dust and cobwebs spoke volumes for the ripe and racy nature of their contents. A large chest of cedar-wood stood in the innermost nook of the cellar, with raised lid, disclosing a quantity of cigars, worm-eaten and musty from extreme age. In the massive wall, forming one end of the vault, and which was in fact the foundation of the outer wall of the convent, was a large doorway; but the door had been removed, and the aperture ...
— Blackwoods Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 59, No. 365, March, 1846 • Various

... back!" he answered, tenderly feeling his chin. "There ain't a weevil breathin', no, nor yet a worm as could ha' knocked me off my pins so neat an' true! I takes back weevil ...
— Peregrine's Progress • Jeffery Farnol

... is what I love! These old yellow, rusty, worm-eaten leaves are all that is left to us of the past, from the days of Charlemagne until this day. The oldest families disappear, the old parchments remain. Where would be the glory of the Hohenstauffens, the Leiningens, the Nidecks, ...
— The Man-Wolf and Other Tales • Emile Erckmann and Alexandre Chatrian

... come (which let not me Indulgent Nature, live to see!) The hour will come, when Chloe's form Shall with its beauty feed the worm; That face where troops of Cupids throng, Whose charms first warm'd me into song, Shall wrinkle, wither, and decay, To Age, and to Disease, a prey! Chloe, in whom are so combin'd The charms of body ...
— The Methodist - A Poem • Evan Lloyd

... difference of viewpoint, the eternity of difference between the middle and the end of the earth. As the days passed, and the crust grew deeper upon the "Beeg Snows," the tragedy progressed rapidly toward finality. At first Jan did not understand. The others did not understand. When the worm of the Englishman's sin revealed itself it struck them with ...
— Back to God's Country and Other Stories • James Oliver Curwood

... groaned helplessly under their tyranny, which was made yet more severe by the cruel and grasping dispositions of their overseers. The laws existing for the protection of the serfs were in every way evaded, and every kopeck which could be wrung from them was exacted without mercy. A worm will turn on the foot which treads on it. The man who had charge of this house was educated above his fellows. He had read in history of peasants, poor and simple men, revolting against their rulers when tyrannised over to excess, and thought and meditated on what ...
— Fred Markham in Russia - The Boy Travellers in the Land of the Czar • W. H. G. Kingston

... I hadn't thought of that, but I reckon you're right." His daughter reached over and brushed a measuring-worm off his shoulder. "Going to get a new coat," ...
— Old Ebenezer • Opie Read

... I have sorrow," the Boy resumed, "for ridding the world of a sordid worm;* of a man whose very soul was dross, and who never had a feeling for the Truthful and the Beautiful? When I stood before my uncle in the moonlight, in the gardens of the ancestral halls of the De Barnwells, I felt that it was the Nemesis come ...
— Burlesques • William Makepeace Thackeray

... OTHER SMALL FRUITS.—Select none but good, sound berries; those freshly picked are best; reject any green, over-ripe, mashed, or worm-eaten fruit. If necessary to wash the berries, do so by putting a quart at a time in a colander, and dipping the dish carefully into a pan of clean water, letting it stand for a moment. If the water is very dirty, repeat the process in a second water. Drain thoroughly, and if to be cooked ...
— Science in the Kitchen. • Mrs. E. E. Kellogg

... then is it worth but the half of its price?' 'Yes,' answered the old man, '[its outward resembleth the other]; but its inward is corrupt.' 'Hath a pearl then an outward and an inward?' asked the merchant, and the old man said, 'Yes. In its inward is a boring worm; but the other pearl is sound and secure against breakage.' Quoth the merchant, 'Give us a token of this and prove to us the truth of thy saying.' And the old man answered, 'We will break the pearl. If I prove a, liar, here ...
— Tales from the Arabic Volumes 1-3 • John Payne

... with thee! Mother! thy features have died out of my recollection; I revere thee! Thou wast all love; to love didst thou offer up thy life—more than life! Pray for me with thy God! Pray for me, ye dead! if there is immortality; if the flesh is not alone born again in grass and the worm; if the soul is not lost in floods of air! We shall be unconscious of it: eternally shall we sleep! eternally!" Otto supported his forehead upon the window-frame, his arm sank languidly, "Mother! poor mother! thou didst gain by death, even ...
— O. T. - A Danish Romance • Hans Christian Andersen

... of the men, the bold helm bearer greeted his dear comrades for the last time. I would not bear sword or weapon against the worm if I knew how else I might proudly grapple with the wretch, as I of old with Grendel did. But I ween this war fire is hot, fierce and poisonous; therefore have I on me shield and byrnie. . . . Then did the famous ...
— English Literature For Boys And Girls • H.E. Marshall

... was similar to that given to Ma'aruf (vol. x. pp. 16,17), but there is nothing in the latter passage to show whether Ma'aruf had any real knowledge of gems, or not. In the present story, the incident of the worm recalls the well-known incident of Solomon ordering worms to pierce gems for Bilkees, the Queen ...
— Supplemental Nights, Volume 5 • Richard F. Burton

... while I hold my life. (One with another.) O fool, will ye marry the worm for a wife? (Mother, ...
— Poems and Ballads (Third Series) - Taken from The Collected Poetical Works of Algernon Charles - Swinburne—Vol. III • Algernon Charles Swinburne

... flushed again with anger, for the man's real character had been revealed to him on the instant, and he was yet in the indignant warmth of the new experience. If he had known that Boonda Broke had cultivated his friendship for months, to worm out of him all the secrets of the Residency, there might have been a violent and immediate conclusion to the incident, for the lad was fiery, and he had no fear in his heart; he was combative, high-tempered, and daring. Boonda Broke had learned no secrets of him, had been ...
— The Judgment House • Gilbert Parker

... F. had was the Danais, papa thinks. Butterflies are all foreigners, and have queer names I don't understand. The worm of the Danais is found on milkweed, papa tells me. It does not spin a cocoon, but forms a chrysalis—a handsome green sack that looks like an ear-drop, with gold ...
— Harper's Young People, June 1, 1880 - An Illustrated Weekly • Various

... cast of a fly,—who call three little troutlings "a splendid day's sport, me boy!" because those rash and ill-advised infants have been deceived by a feather-bug which never would have been of any use to them, instead of a real worm which would. We, who can make prettier curves and deceive larger game in a dancing-party at home, did not go to the Yo-Semite for that kind of sport. When I found that the best bait or fly caught only half a dozen trout in an ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 13, No. 80, June, 1864 • Various

... Janissaries! What should make thee inaccessible to my fury? No, I will use no daggers! I will unfold a tale!—I will show thee to the world for what thou art; and all the men that live, shall confess my truth!—Didst thou imagine that I was altogether passive, a mere worm, organised to feel sensations of pain, but no emotion of resentment? Didst thou imagine that there was no danger in inflicting on me pains however great, miseries however dreadful? Didst thou believe me impotent, imbecile, and idiot-like, with no understanding to contrive thy ruin, ...
— Caleb Williams - Things As They Are • William Godwin

... counted for nothing against the open brand of God's displeasure. The veriest muck-worm in the market-place spat out at sight of him. Moor and Jew, Arab and ...
— The Scapegoat • Hall Caine

... and putrefaction, of vermiculation and incineration, of dissolution and dispersion in and from the grave, when these bodies that have been the children of royal parents, and the parents of royal children, must say with Job, Corruption, thou art my father, and to the worm, Thou art my mother and my sister. Miserable riddle, when the same worm must be my mother, and my sister and myself! Miserable incest, when I must be married to my mother and my sister, and be both father and mother to my own mother and sister, beget and bear that worm which is ...
— Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions - Together with Death's Duel • John Donne

... ask; Drew could only obey directions. They made a worm's progress along the full length of the old ranch building, and dropped the lariat for a ladder to the ground. They crossed the small part of the camp near the ravine with the same caution they had used ...
— Rebel Spurs • Andre Norton

... and attention to detail. But at her age she could not have had the scholarship to produce such a book. The author shows a close familiarity with sixteenth- century literature such as could only be gained by a student of the style of that period,—Miss Armitage has nothing of the 'book- worm' about her—she is quite a simple young person—more like a bright school-girl than ...
— Innocent - Her Fancy and His Fact • Marie Corelli

... corner we saw a professional beggar, a shattered man of drooping misery, his rags vieing with the colour of the road. Jo began to sketch, but he promptly sat up, twirled his long moustaches, and from a worm became a lion. One may be a beggar in Albania, but as long as one has moustaches one is ...
— The Luck of Thirteen - Wanderings and Flight through Montenegro and Serbia • Jan Gordon

... this Billy led me, skirting it by a couple of yards, and wriggling on his belly like a blind worm. Crawling closer now (for 'twas hard to see him against the black turf), I stopp'd beside him and strove to quiet the violence of my breathing. Then, after a minute's pause, together we pulled ourselves to ...
— The Splendid Spur • Arthur T. Quiller Couch

... most important spraying of the year is given within a week after the blossoms fall, the same spraying compound being used. This spraying kills many of the germinating spores of such things as apple scab and also is the important spray for codling worm as well as for the plum curculio and ...
— Trees, Fruits and Flowers of Minnesota, 1916 • Various

... control, while the train makes its running, is but nominal, is then the first to suffer!" He saw himself in the man's place. "Poor glow-worm!" he cried, "he may change the green light in his tail to red—or was it red to begin with? but it is no use! Those proletarian forces descending upon him from the rear are quite blind in their purpose: it is merely dead weight and impetus that send them along." And then he pulled ...
— King John of Jingalo - The Story of a Monarch in Difficulties • Laurence Housman

... cursing and insulting him by every epithet deemed most scandalous and unendurable among men. Yet that man's indignant tongue is treble-knotted by the law, that suspends death itself over his head should his passion discharge the slightest blow at the boy-worm that spits at ...
— White Jacket - or, the World on a Man-of-War • Herman Melville

... seems to me that I could live if I could see a river. Oh, this desert! These perpetual rocks! Not a green thing to cool one's eyes. Not a drop of water. I seem to be drying up, like a worm in the sunshine." ...
— Overland • John William De Forest

... "We! We are world-dried and weather-beaten. We have not a worm-eaten emotion between us. I am seventy, and you, who are thirty-five, are the elder of the two. Bah I At that girl's age I had ...
— "Le Monsieur De La Petite Dame" • Frances Hodgson Burnett

... out, wringing his hands. "It was an unlucky day that I ever cast eyes on his ugly face for the first time, and now he's after coming back again to pick me up in the middle of the Indian Ocean, just as a big black crow does a worm out ...
— James Braithwaite, the Supercargo - The Story of his Adventures Ashore and Afloat • W.H.G. Kingston

... the charms of the old romantic chronicle, - not the less true that, in this respect, it approaches nearer to the usual tone of romance. It is in such writings that we may look to find the form and pressure of the age. The worm-eaten state-papers, official correspondence, public records, are all serviceable, indispensable, to history. They are the framework on which it is to repose; the skeleton of facts which gives it its strength and proportions. But they are as worthless as the dry ...
— The History Of The Conquest Of Peru • William H. Prescott

... Jack replied that "natural" things are not always beautiful; that paint, which makes no pretense of being anything but paint, is as genuine as shellac or varnish, and that if the object is to be interesting, the bark, the knots, the worm-holes, and, if possible, the worms themselves should be displayed. "Besides," said he, "if we decide on hard wood, who shall choose the kinds? There's beech, birch and maple; cherry, whitewood and ebony; ash and brown ash and white ash and black ash; ditto oak, drawn and quartered; there's ...
— The House that Jill Built - after Jack's had proved a failure • E. C. Gardner

... from the cellar, and Modernus was taking the mules to the stable, St. Nicolas, sitting at the hearth beside a dying fire, cast a glance round the smoky room. Dust and dirt covered the benches and casks; spiders spun their webs between the worm-eaten joists, whence hung scanty bunches of onions. In a dark corner the ...
— The Miracle Of The Great St. Nicolas - 1920 • Anatole France

... saline, sweet, acid, natural, etc. The species mentioned specifically are lumbrici and ascarides or cucubitini, though the terms long, round, short and broad are also employed, and probably include the tape worm or taenia lata. The treatment of these parasites consists generally in the use of aromatic, bitter or acid mixtures, among which gentian, serpentaria, tithymal and cucumis agrestis are especially commended for lumbrici, and enemata of wormwood, lupinus, scammony, ...
— Gilbertus Anglicus - Medicine of the Thirteenth Century • Henry Ebenezer Handerson

... was that toothache was caused by a worm and that henbane seed roasted would cure it. The following from "The School ...
— Three Thousand Years of Mental Healing • George Barton Cutten

... hung with the old-world tapestry that decorated house fronts in provincial towns on Corpus Christi Day. For furniture it boasted a vast four-post bedstead with canopy, valances and quilt of crimson serge, a couple of worm-eaten armchairs, two tapestry-covered chairs in walnut wood, an aged bureau, and a timepiece on the mantel-shelf. The Seigneur Rouzeau, Jerome-Nicolas' master and predecessor, had furnished the homely old-world room; it was just ...
— Two Poets - Lost Illusions Part I • Honore de Balzac

... fast, and at others keeping up a steady trot for half a mile without stopping. As he was proceeding on his travels, he observed, under some trees ahead of him, a spark of fire emitted; he thought it was a glow-worm at first; but it was more like the striking of a flint against steel; and as he saw it a second time, he stopped, that he might ascertain what it might be before ...
— The Children of the New Forest • Captain Marryat

... ourselves. Desperate resolves are taken, tragedies are planned, but Fate or Providence intervenes. The old balance pendulates again—the foot falls into the familiar step. Death comes to cut the Gordian knot. The grave-sod covers all that is left, and the worm feeds ...
— The Italians • Frances Elliot

... himself also on an old worm-eaten Gothic chest, rumpling and chafing the golden or tinselled threads of the embroidered silk, so rare and so time-worn, flung over the Gothic chest, so rare also, ...
— Kenelm Chillingly, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton

... subject from a plain, practical, common-sense point of view—divested of "opinions," "surmises," "technicalities," "similarities," certain ethnological false shadows and philological mystifications, the little glow-worm in the hedge-bottom on a dark night, which our great minds have been running after for generations, and "natural consequences," "objects sought," and "certain results"—we shall find that the same thing has happened to the Gipsies, or Indians, centuries ago, that ...
— Gipsy Life - being an account of our Gipsies and their children • George Smith

... of remark that in the case of the A. H. Smith Burns forgeries, suspicion was first excited by a simple but significant matter. The paper contained several worm holes. These had been carefully avoided by the writer, he knowing that if his pen touched them the result would be a spluttering ...
— The Detection of Forgery • Douglas Blackburn

... a glow-worm golden In a dell of dew, Scattering unbeholden Its aerial hue Among the flowers and grass which screen it from ...
— O May I Join the Choir Invisible! - and Other Favorite Poems • George Eliot

... determined upon your incidents and tone. The most important portion—in fact, the soul of the whole business, is yet to be attended to—I allude to the filling up. It is not to be supposed that a lady, or gentleman either, has been leading the life of a book worm. And yet above all things it is necessary that your article have an air of erudition, or at least afford evidence of extensive general reading. Now I'll put you in the way of accomplishing this point. See here!" (pulling down some three or four ordinary-looking ...
— The Works of Edgar Allan Poe - Volume 4 (of 5) of the Raven Edition • Edgar Allan Poe

... did they begin to realize and to say in thought, "I am a living being." What animals are conscious of personality? Any of our cousins of the monkey tribe? Is the horse conscious of personality, or the ox, the cat or the dog? If so, does the skunk have personality, the mouse, the flea, the worm, the tadpole, the microscopic animal? If so, do our other cousins have personality,—the trees, the vines, the flowers, the thorn and the brier, the cactus and the thistle, and the microscopic disease germs? If so, when did personality begin? With the first primordial germ? ...
— The Evolution Of Man Scientifically Disproved • William A. Williams

... you been?" called Hinpoha. "We've been calling and calling for you. Come look at the robin trying to swallow the enormous angle worm twice as ...
— The Camp Fire Girls Do Their Bit - Or, Over the Top with the Winnebagos • Hildegard G. Frey

... again. A rosy vapor, as from some Tartarean breathing, hovered about the mouths of the furnaces. Moment by moment these mouths opened and belched and closed. It was the fiery respiration of a gigantic beast, of a long worm whose dark body enveloped the smoky city. The beast heaved and panted and rested, again and again—the beast that lay on its belly for many a mile, whose ample stomach was the city, there ...
— The Web of Life • Robert Herrick

... have died, or at least to have been immured in a convent to suffer a living death, but instead of acquiescing in their fate, Belinda and Cleomira, Mirtamene, and Glicera defy the world, and in the last case prove that the worm may turn. ...
— The Life and Romances of Mrs. Eliza Haywood • George Frisbie Whicher

... gave him a furtive look, as with evident enjoyment he took a red worm out of some moss and stuck his sharp hook into it, drew the writhing creature over the shank, and then passed the point through again ...
— Quicksilver - The Boy With No Skid To His Wheel • George Manville Fenn

... how insects encumbered by such hard, unwieldy shells, could penetrate to such distance below the surface of the earth; for they did not know that each one of these locusts came from a little worm which had dropped into the ground many years before, and which had worked its way down to a great depth, and then, about a sixth of a century afterward, had reappeared on the surface as a hard-shell locust, ready to split its back, get out of its shell, spend ...
— Stories of New Jersey • Frank Richard Stockton

... availed himself of every opportunity to worm out secrets, and to make himself necessary by forced confidences, ...
— Cinq Mars, Complete • Alfred de Vigny

... say the word, though! I wunna risk it till he's off for the day. If he found me out, it'd be notice. Eh, missus, he's like a lad with his first white mouse! And the parson! Laws, they'm two thrussels wi' one worm, and ...
— Gone to Earth • Mary Webb

... habits of the many brilliant-hued fish who live in Coral-Land; and he knew that the floor of the Lagoon had as many curious and beautiful inhabitants as its waters. There the Star-Fish sprawled on the sand, the Sea-Cucumber crawled along, expanding and contracting its worm-like body; there the Sea-Urchin hid himself in the rock, and shells large and small, pink, blue, red and all the colors of the rainbow lay scattered about ...
— How Sammy Went to Coral-Land • Emily Paret Atwater

... the Caliph in a voice of thunder, "and weigh thy words before thou speakest. Duties of government, sayest thou? Duties! Who has duties? A worm like myself, that we have been pleased to exalt out of the dust; but we have nought to do either with such reptiles or with duty; we, the vicar of the Prophet. Our pleasure is your duty, and ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine - Volume 57, No. 352, February 1845 • Various

... lost, and that assuredly it was God who had inspired him with the idea of going to the army. From that time Boufflers fell into a disgrace from which he never recovered. He had the courage to appear as usual at the Court; but a worm was gnawing him within and destroyed him. Oftentimes he opened his heart to me without rashness, and without passing the strict limits of his virtue; but the poniard was in his heart, and neither time nor reflection could dull its edge. He did nothing but languish afterwards, ...
— The Memoirs of Louis XIV., His Court and The Regency, Complete • Duc de Saint-Simon

... the room. "The cold-blooded, remorseless villain! She is too good for such a sacrifice—I must be at work. And so, one infamy at a time is not enough for the sin-dealing land lubber; he wanted to worm out of ...
— The Buccaneer - A Tale • Mrs. S. C. Hall

... corner, like a misbehaving child, dozing as he stands and dreaming of the hay-fields! And the bowl and skittles there,—the trim-waisted skittles, shapely maids, whose orderly quadrilles Patou in his gambols clumsily upsets! The great worm-eaten bowl whose curved expanse some ant is always crossing, travelling with no less pride than famed explorers,—around her ball in 80 seconds!—Nothing, I tell you, is two instants quite the same!—And ...
— Chantecler - Play in Four Acts • Edmond Rostand

... vain repetitions. She was always "a worm" when asked after her health, and everything that pleased her was "pucka." She knew no language but her own, and that she spoke indifferently, her command of it being limited for the most part to slang expressions, ...
— The Heavenly Twins • Madame Sarah Grand

... accepted wooer. Above all, it was pleasant to sit holding Muriel's hand and watching the ill-concealed efforts of Mr. Albert Potter to hide his mortification. Albert was a mechanic in the motor-works round the corner, and hitherto Roland had always felt something of a worm in his presence. Albert was so infernally strong and silent and efficient. He could dissect a car and put it together again. He could drive through the thickest traffic. He could sit silent in company without having his silence attributed to shyness or imbecility. But—he could not get engaged ...
— A Man of Means • P. G. Wodehouse and C. H. Bovill

... equally avoid gushing and tyrannising over him. To see a girl ordering her fiance about, making him fetch and carry like a black boy, and taking his submission as her due, is enough to justify the hope that the worm will turn to some purpose when she least expects it. There should be nothing abject in love on either side. It hurts to see the dog-like look of entreaty in human eyes. Things should be more on a level; the hearts of man and woman should give and take gladly of ...
— The Etiquette of Engagement and Marriage • G. R. M. Devereux

... the sultan. Mats had been spread in the castle in a small anti-chamber. The old man was seated, but rose up to receive them, and welcomed them to his city. He apologized for not waiting on them, but said he was sick, and had been very little out for some time. He had guinea-worm, and cataract was forming in his eyes. He was dressed in a nearly worn-out robe, and trousers of the same colour, and round his head was wrapped an old piece of yellow coarse cloth for a turban. Notwithstanding the meanness of the dress, there ...
— Lander's Travels - The Travels of Richard Lander into the Interior of Africa • Robert Huish

... did not give up. She sowed some more seeds in April. These grew very well until a cut-worm found them. The worm wished to try new things, too. So he ate off ...
— Stories of Great Americans for Little Americans • Edward Eggleston

... imperfect sacrifice were offered to the Lord—a lamb full of blemish? If the church were weak, and it were really beyond her ability to do more than she does at present, then God would accomplish great victories by the feeble means. He can save by few as well as by many. He would make the "worm Jacob to thresh mountains." But since God has blessed the American church with numbers, and with great and peculiar advantages, he requires of her efforts that accord with her ability. The poor widow's mites accomplish much; but the ...
— Thoughts on Missions • Sheldon Dibble

... turn, thy hasty foot aside Nor crush that helpless worm; The frame thy wayward looks deride, Required a God ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction - Vol. 20. No. 568 - 29 Sept 1832 • Various

... open the practicable leaf of the great worm-eaten door, which yielded reluctantly, and creaked dolefully as it turned upon its rusty hinges, the curious visitor entered a sort of portico, more ancient than the rest of the building, with fine, large columns of bluish granite, ...
— Captain Fracasse • Theophile Gautier

... alliance with the Onondagas; but demanding right manfully that the confederacy remain neutral; nay, more, he repulsed offers of warriors from the Oneidas to scout for him, knowing what that sweet word 'scout' implied—God bless him I ... I have no love for Schuyler.... He lately called me 'malt-worm,' and, if I'm not at fault, he added, 'skin-flint Dutchman,' or some such tribute to my thrift. But he has conducted like a man of honor in this Iroquois matter, and I care not who hears ...
— The Maid-At-Arms • Robert W. Chambers

... ways, more especially an ironic young man, from whom it is least expected, may be viewed as a pest to society. Have we not seen persons of weight and name coming forward, with gentlest indifference, to tread such a one out of sight, as an insignificancy and worm, start ceiling-high (balkenhoch), and thence fall shattered and supine, to be borne home on shutters, not without indignation, when he proved electric ...
— Sartor Resartus, and On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History • Thomas Carlyle

... single strength; and this, indeed, is the only safe circumstance of a partnership: then, indeed, they are properly partners when they are assistants to one another, whereas otherwise they are like two gamesters striving to worm one another out, and to get the mastery in the ...
— The Complete English Tradesman (1839 ed.) • Daniel Defoe

... numbers of skilled artisans and mechanics. In 1619, one hundred and fifty workmen from Warwickshire and Stafford were employed to set up iron works on the James.[142] Repeated attempts were made to foster the silk industry, and on more than one occasion men practiced in the culture of the silk worm came to Virginia.[143] An effort was made to start the manufacture of glass,[144] while pipe staves and clapboards were produced in considerable quantities.[145] Moreover, numerous tradesmen of all ...
— Patrician and Plebeian - Or The Origin and Development of the Social Classes of the Old Dominion • Thomas J. Wertenbaker

... of countless rings The next unto the farthest brings; The eye reads omens where it goes, And speaks all languages the rose; And striving to be man, the worm Mounts through all the ...
— Ralph Waldo Emerson • Oliver Wendell Holmes

... who are so numerous in these Belgian hamlets—more numerous, I think, than anywhere else on earth. In my mind I had learned to associate such a sight with at least one old woman—an incredibly old woman, with a back bent like a measuring worm's, and a cap on her scanty hair, and a face crosshatched with a million wrinkles—who would be pottering about at the back of some half- ruined house or maybe squatting in a desolated doorway staring at us with her rheumy, puckered ...
— Paths of Glory - Impressions of War Written At and Near the Front • Irvin S. Cobb

... lamp-post. The other was a piece of touchwood, which also shines, and always more than a stock-fish; besides, it said so itself, it was the last piece of a tree that had once been the pride of the forest. The third was a glow-worm; but where it had come from the lamp could not imagine; but the glow-worm was there, and it also shone, but the touchwood and the herring's head took their oaths that it only shone at certain times, and therefore it could never be taken ...
— A Christmas Greeting • Hans Christian Andersen

... "I believe my Lord Earl himself fears the monster of the cavern, to whom he gives the name of Damp. Dread nothing, my Lord; the valorous knight Sir Jones is even now in conflict with the foul worm, as those cries assure me, being in fact caused by ...
— Unknown to History - A Story of the Captivity of Mary of Scotland • Charlotte M. Yonge

... developed an intensely personal style of his own, in which the sense of rhythm is entirely dominated by the sense of colour. He manipulates the French language with a freedom sometimes barbarous, 'dragging his images by the heels or the hair' (in the admirable phrase of Leon Bloy) 'up and down the worm-eaten staircase of terrified syntax,' gaining, certainly, the effects at which he aims. He possesses, in the highest degree, that style tachete et faisande—high-flavoured and spotted with corruption—that he attributes ...
— Figures of Several Centuries • Arthur Symons

... of the "Loathly Worm". A king out hunting (Herod or Herraud, King of Sweden), for some unexplained reason brings home two small snakes as presents for his daughter. They wax wonderfully, have to be fed a whole ox a day, ...
— The Danish History, Books I-IX • Saxo Grammaticus ("Saxo the Learned")

... rather than encourage the hard study of books. Lessons at this age should be drawn chiefly from objects in the garden, the field, and the grove; from the flower, the plant, the tree, the brook, the bird, the beast, the worm, the fly, the human body—the sun, or the visible heavens. These lessons, whether given by the parent, as constituting a part of the family arrangements, or by the infant or primary school teacher, should, it is true, be regarded for the time being as study, but they should never be long; and ...
— The Young Mother - Management of Children in Regard to Health • William A. Alcott

... sparkling like stars. They say that it lives about five hundred years in the wilderness, and when advanced in age it builds itself a pile of sweet wood and aromatic gums, fires it with the wafting of its wings, and thus burns itself; and that from its ashes arises a worm, which in time grows up to be a Phoenix. Hence the ...
— The Phoenix and the Carpet • E. Nesbit

... Instead of worm-seed (artemisia santonica,) the seeds of tansy are frequently offered for sale, or a ...
— A Treatise on Adulterations of Food, and Culinary Poisons • Fredrick Accum

... Berlas, where the old King and Queen remain, while Calaf proceeds to China, where he engages in an intellectual contest with Princess Tourandocte (Turandot, i.e. Turandokht or Turan's daughter). When Turandot is on the point of defeat, she sends her confidante, a captive princess, to Calaf, to worm out his secret (his own name). The confidante, who is herself in love with Calaf, horrifies him with the invention that Turandot intends to have him secretly assassinated; but although he drops his name in his consternation, he refuses to fly with his visitor. In ...
— Supplemental Nights, Volume 6 • Richard F. Burton

... the benign octopus—centipede it became—that had its origin in the Parliament of Canada and wrecked one Tory Government. The penalty of transcontinental railways is that they require to have mortgages on governments. Presently the worm turns. But that usually costs more money than the mortgage. We are now paying off the mortgages of two great systems. The C.P.R. mortgage was paid long ago. The President of the C.P.R. is usually regarded as second only to the Premier in point of national ...
— The Masques of Ottawa • Domino

... your pardon, Madam, if it has that appearance to you. But indeed, my dear Mamma, there seem to be snares laying in wait for me. Too well I know my brother's drift. With a good word he shall have my consent for all he wishes to worm me out of—neither he, nor my sister, shall need to take half ...
— Clarissa, Volume 1 (of 9) • Samuel Richardson

... &c.; maize, or Indian corn; musical instruments; mustard-flower; paper, painted or stained paper, &c.; pencils, lead and slate; perfumery; perry; pewter; pomatum; pots of stone; puddings and sausages; rice; sago; seeds, garden, &c.; silk (manufactures of), &c.; silk-worm gut; skins (articles manufactured of); soap, hard and soft; spa-ware; spirits, viz., brandy, geneva, and other foreign spirits, &c.; steel manufactures; tallow; tapioca; tin; tobacco; tongues; turnery; twine; varnish; wafers; washing-balls; wax (sealing); whipcord; wire; woollen ...
— The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. - From George III. to Victoria • E. Farr and E. H. Nolan

... spring; and yet you may be gathered into the garner of mortality before me, for the sickle of death cuts down the green as oft as the ripe, and there is a colour in your cheek, that, like the bud of the rose, serveth oft to hide the worm of corruption. Wherefore labour as one who knoweth not when his master calleth. And if it be my lot to return to this village after ye are gane hame to your ain place, these auld withered hands will frame a stane of memorial, that ...
— Old Mortality, Complete, Illustrated • Sir Walter Scott

... worm, and give account of yourself,' said the captain sternly, bestowing a kick on the ...
— A German Pompadour - Being the Extraordinary History of Wilhelmine van Graevenitz, - Landhofmeisterin of Wirtemberg • Marie Hay

... sized converter. The sweep of the crane is such as to allow the converter to be brought close up to the tap hole of the blast furnace or cupola, so that the use of open gutters for the fluid metal may be avoided as much as possible. The converter is turned on its axis by a screw and worm wheel, which is manipulated by a workman standing on a platform at the opposite arm of the crane. The blast is brought in from above by a pipe down the central pillar of the crane, which is connected with the blast-main by a flexible tube and packed joint. ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 492, June 6, 1885 • Various

... sneered the girl. "You did not shoot him. Stafford did not hire you to do it. You didn't come here, pretending that you had been bitten by a rattler, so that you might have a chance to worm yourself into my brother's favor—and then shoot him. You haven't been hanging around Bear Flat all summer, pretending to look for stray Two Diamond cattle. You haven't been trying to make a fool of me——" Her voice trembled ...
— The Two-Gun Man • Charles Alden Seltzer

... nothing could be more slothful or slow, more given up to a life of ease and degeneracy, than the "reef-building polypifer"—to give him his scientific name. He is the hobo of the animal world, but, unlike the hobo, he does not even tramp for a living. He exists as a sluggish and gelatinous worm; he attracts to himself calcareous elements from the water to make himself a house—mark you, the sea does the building—he dies, and he leaves his house behind him—and a reputation for industry, beside which the reputation of the ant turns ...
— The Blue Lagoon - A Romance • H. de Vere Stacpoole

... and contains seven huge gates, which are raised or dropped into their places by beautiful machinery. To each gate is attached an immense screw, which stands perpendicularly, twenty feet long and ten inches in diameter. At its upper end, it passes through a matrix-worm in the centre of a large cog-wheel, lying horizontally The whole is set in motion by the slightest turning of a handle; and here I saw the application of the Turpin Wheel I spoke of before—no engine or complication, but a wheel fifteen feet in diameter, fixed horizontally, submerged in the stream, ...
— Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 429 - Volume 17, New Series, March 20, 1852 • Various

... romance, believes the ground on which she walks ought to be grateful for the honor, and wonders if every body who goes out don't go straightway to talking rapturously about her. ARABELLA is a type—the type of a class of perfectionists. ARABELLA is neither a worm nor a butterfly, but the bridge between. For all this ARABELLA believes herself to be the best of butterflies, with the capacity to fly in the highest manner. At twenty-five her wings will be clipped, her colors will modify, ...
— Punchinello, Vol. 1, No. 9, May 28, 1870 • Various

... may be fairly at the mercy of criticism. So, whatever tends to introduce false science, false history, indeed, falsehood in any shape, exposes itself to the censor's rod. But harmless, inoffensive works should be passed by. Where is the bravery of treading on a worm or crushing a poor fly? Where the utility? ...
— A Publisher and His Friends • Samuel Smiles

... Beyond the meadows were other hills, and knolls, and rocky heights, all covered with an almost impenetrable forest, and there the hardest fighting of those terrible days was done. A narrow road, bordered by a worm-fence (Western boys know what a worm-fence is), wound around the foot of the hill, and led to a large mansion standing half hidden in a grove of oaks and elms, not half a mile away. Before this mansion were pleasant lawns ...
— Our Young Folks, Vol 1, No. 1 - An Illustrated Magazine • Various

... that worthy had sat to read a tract of Milton's or of Baxter's, or the table at which he had penned his letters to Hampden or Fairfax, or to his old friend—on the wrong side—Edmund Verney the standard-bearer. Only the worm-eaten shelves were dropping from their supports, and the books lay in mouldy confusion; the roofs had great holes and gaps, whence the laths hung dismally down, and bats came flitting in the dusk; and there were rotten places in the ...
— Marcella • Mrs. Humphry Ward

... intestinal mucous membrane and interfere with digestion, obstruct the intestine and cause debility and circulatory disturbances. The large round worm may form a tangled mass and completely fill a portion of ...
— Common Diseases of Farm Animals • R. A. Craig, D. V. M.

... floating majestically on her shoulders. No one spoke a word. It grew darker and darker among the trees, but Olive did not feel frightened. On they went, till at last she saw twinkling before them a very small but bright blue light. It looked scarcely larger than the lamp of a glow-worm, but it shone out very distinct in the darkness. Immediately they saw it the dwarfs set up a shout, and as it died away, to Olive's surprise, they began to sing. And what do you think they sang? Olive at first could hardly believe her ears ...
— A Christmas Posy • Mary Louisa Stewart Molesworth

... says, too, in my little book, 'Love your enemies.' I think snakes are mine, but I guess I'll try and love him because God made him. Some boy will kill him if I leave him here, and then perhaps his mother will be very sad about it. Come, poor worm, I wish to help you, so be patient, and ...
— A Modern Cinderella - or The Little Old Show and Other Stories • Louisa May Alcott

... in the farmyard is incessantly pecking about and swallowing now a grain of corn, and now a fly or a worm. In fact, it is feeding, and, as every one knows, would soon die if not supplied with food. It is also a matter of every-day knowledge that it would not be of much use to give a fowl the soil of a cornfield, with plenty of air ...
— A Book of Natural History - Young Folks' Library Volume XIV. • Various

... felt it, and he had the small satisfaction of seeing that she did. She had trodden on her worm a little too hard, in telling Ange de la Mariniere's father that he might as well dream of a princess as of Helene ...
— Angelot - A Story of the First Empire • Eleanor Price

... of romance lacking, for he brought with him a young and beautiful bride and it was for her that the Castle was built. He must have learned from Columbus, Balboa, Pizarro and the other early explorers that the worm sometimes turns and that it was wise for him to make his position safe against any revolt of the Indians. So the house which you are about to visit was put up. It is of solid stone and three stories high,—something almost unknown in an earthquake ...
— Up the Forked River - Or, Adventures in South America • Edward Sylvester Ellis

... thereof he sate, Expecting what would be the city's fate. And over Jonah's head behold the Lord Prepar'd, and caused to come up a gourd To shadow him, and ease him of his grief; And Jonah was right glad of this relief. But God a worm sent early the next day, Which smote the gourd; it withered away: And when the sun arose, it came to pass, That God a vehement east wind did raise; Besides the sun did beat upon his head, So that he fainted, ...
— The Works of John Bunyan • John Bunyan

... others must hold us in suspense, and tempt our curiosity to explore their obscurity. Those who would dispel these various illusions, to give us their drab-coloured creation in their stead, are not very wise. Let the naturalist, if he will, catch the glow-worm, carry it home with him in a box, and find it next morning nothing but a little grey worm; let the poet or the lover of poetry visit it at evening, when beneath the scented hawthorn and the crescent ...
— Lectures on the English Poets - Delivered at the Surrey Institution • William Hazlitt

... cruel thrust under the circumstances, and Miss Baylis had the grace to blush at the look of scorn which darted from Beverly's eyes straight into her own and the curl which Aileen's lips held. But even a worm may turn, and for once Miss Baylis was taken off her feet by having Electra reply: "I guess it's more honest ...
— A Dixie School Girl • Gabrielle E. Jackson

... meadow brook used to be about as good as any that I had. The North American sucker is not an engaging animal in all respects; his body is comely enough, but his mouth is puckered up like that of a purse. The mouth is not formed for the gentle angle-worm nor the delusive fly of the fishermen. It is necessary, therefore, to snare the fish if you want him. In the sunny days he lies in the deep pools, by some big stone or near the bank, poising himself quite still, or only stirring ...
— Baddeck and That Sort of Thing • Charles Dudley Warner

... or halt, rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into the eternal fire. And if thine eye causeth thee to stumble, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: it is good for thee to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into the hell of fire, where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. For every one shall be salted with fire. Salt is good; but if the salt have lost its saltness, wherewith will ye season it? Have salt in yourselves, and be at ...
— His Life - A Complete Story in the Words of the Four Gospels • William E. Barton, Theodore G. Soares, Sydney Strong

... is man! what a novelty, what a monster, what a chaos, what a subject of contradiction, what a prodigy! A judge of all things, feeble worm of the earth, depositary of the truth, cloaca of uncertainty and error, the glory and the shame of ...
— Familiar Quotations • John Bartlett

... knot of people who are permitted by special order to come as far as the door of the reading-room, and who evidently regard the readers as some curious sort of animal exhibited for their special delectation—perhaps the book-"worm" of which they have heard so much—we go up the stairs, now thronged with crowds in unwonted broadcloth and fragrant with the odour of the inevitable orange. Next to the drinking fountain, which is decidedly the chief attraction, comes the gorilla, and then the extinct animals. One ...
— Mystic London: - or, Phases of occult life in the metropolis • Charles Maurice Davies

... of man to woman in all work was quite as conspicuous as his rapacity and tyranny in taking to himself all the wages. The Baroness, though addressing a mixed audience, seemed to have no hesitation in speaking of man generally as a foul worm who ought to be put down and kept under, and merely allowed to be the father of children. But after a minute or two Lady George found that she could not understand two words consecutively, although she was close to the lecturer. The Baroness, as she became heated, ...
— Is He Popenjoy? • Anthony Trollope

... saw that there was but one way to the man's heart. Sore, and sick, and smiling, she took that way: resolving to bide her time; to worm herself in any how, and wait patiently till she could venture to thrust ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 17, No. 103, May, 1866 • Various

... giggled hysterically, "look at it now," for the hand was writhing in agonized contortions, squirming and wriggling upon the nail like a worm ...
— Masterpieces of Mystery, Vol. 1 (of 4) - Ghost Stories • Various

... glow-worm lend thee, The shooting stars attend thee, And the elves also, Whose little eyes glow Like the sparks of fire, ...
— Old Christmas From the Sketch Book of Washington Irving • Washington Irving

... Ben Sion, Yevrey Reformatory, St. Petersburg, 1882. In his manifesto (Ha-Meliz, April 21, 1881) Gordon declared: "We have discarded the dusty Talmud. We cannot rest satisfied, in questions of religion, with the worm-eaten carcass, with the observances of rabbinical Judaism." See Ha-Shiloah, ii. 53. See also Kahan, Meahore ha-Pargud (reprint from Ha-Meliz, 1885), ...
— The Haskalah Movement in Russia • Jacob S. Raisin

... world knows, one of the safest and best shots of the day, in Pall Mall. He had just stepped out of his Club—the luxurious and splendid Tatterdemalion, or, as it is familiarly called, "the Tat"—where, to use his own graphic language, he had been "killing the worm with a ...
— Punch, Or The London Charivari, VOL. 103, November 26, 1892 • Various

... here," he said involuntarily; and then he thought of those wise words of Ruskin's: "Wherever a true wife comes, this home is always round her. The stars only may be over her head, the glow-worm in the night-cold grass may be the only fire at her foot; but home is ...
— A Vanished Hand • Sarah Doudney

... posterior to it. It begins, after the system of English romances, with a kind of moral prologue on the various lives and states of men of "Middelerd." Those who care for good literature and good learning are invited to hear a noble geste of Alisaundre, Darye, and Pore, with wonders of worm and beast. After a geographical prologue the story of Nectanabus, "Neptanabus," is opened, and his determination to revenge himself on Philip of Macedon explained by the fact of that king having headed the combination against Egypt. The design on Olympias, and its success, are very fully expounded. ...
— The Flourishing of Romance and the Rise of Allegory - (Periods of European Literature, vol. II) • George Saintsbury

... sphere of human fear; He has come into touch with things supernal. At each man's gate death stands await; And dying flying were better than lying In sick beds crying for life eternal. Better to fly halfway to God Than to burrow too long like a worm in ...
— Winning a Cause - World War Stories • John Gilbert Thompson and Inez Bigwood

... with a laugh: "Have you any reason for wishing to know? Well, then, out of love I will tell you where it lies; in a certain field there stand three green oaks, and under the roots of the largest oak is a worm, and if ever this worm is found and crushed, that instant ...
— The Russian Garland - being Russian Falk Tales • Various

... loathing; but there is a very sharp remembrance of it, a suffering inconceivably terrible to 407:3 man's self-respect. Puffing the obnoxious fumes of to- bacco, or chewing a leaf naturally attractive to no crea- ture except a loathsome worm, is ...
— Science and Health With Key to the Scriptures • Mary Baker Eddy

... short length of time of the contact between the gases and the heating surfaces of the boiler, nearly half of the heat of the fire was lost. With a view to overcoming this loss at least partially, he used an internal furnace with a smoke flue winding through the water in the form of a worm in a still. In order that the length of passage of the gases might not act as a damper on the fire, Dr. Allen recommended the use of a pair of bellows for forcing the sluggish vapor through the flue. This is probably the first suggested use of forced draft. In forming an estimate ...
— Steam, Its Generation and Use • Babcock & Wilcox Co.

... English. Two ginger-beers with a stick of Hollands were supplied, and the stick of Slabberts was as the rod of Moses to the other stick for strength and power. But as Emigration Jane daintily sipped the cooling beverage, giggling at the soapy bubbles that snapped at her nose, the restless worm of anxiety kept on gnawing under the flowery "blowse." Too well did she know the ways of young men who hospitably ask you if you're thirsty, and 'ave you in, whether or no, and order drinks as liberal as lords, and then discover that they're ...
— The Dop Doctor • Clotilde Inez Mary Graves

... boys were all different. Jack was bright and clever, Ned was a wag, Willie was a book-worm, and ...
— Beautiful Joe - An Autobiography of a Dog • by Marshall Saunders

... the most attractive of these, the while her eyes shone with happiness. Those with whom she was commonly brought in contact noticed the change in her demeanour. Mrs Farthing smiled mysteriously, as if guessing the cause. Miss Hunter made many unsuccessful efforts to worm confidences from Mavis; while plain Miss Toombs showed her displeasure of the alteration that had occurred in her by scarcely ever addressing her, and ...
— Sparrows - The Story of an Unprotected Girl • Horace W. C. Newte

... Faust? whose voice rang through my ear, Whose mighty yearning drew me from my sphere? Is this thing thou? that, blasted by my breath, Through all life's windings shuddereth, A shrinking, cringing, writhing worm! ...
— Faust • Goethe

... arbitrary decisions of the priests, and their execution on the will of the sovereign. The constitution of India is therefore like a house without a foundation and without a roof. It is a principle of Hindoo religion not to kill a worm, not even to tread on a blade of grass, for fear of injuring life; but the torments, cruelties, and bloodshed inflicted by Indian tyrants would shock a Nero or a Borgia. Half the best informed writers on India will tell you that the ...
— Ten Great Religions - An Essay in Comparative Theology • James Freeman Clarke

... had condoned too many instances of the chamberlain's free use of his lord's funds, to come upon him harshly for any peculation. The man had been useful in many dubious actions; in bribery, solicitation, pimping, as a useful and facile witness. Chu[u]dayu would worm himself to the bottom of this ...
— Bakemono Yashiki (The Haunted House) - Tales of the Tokugawa, Volume 2 (of 2) • James S. De Benneville

... God avenging Robert Fitzhildebrand's perfidity, a worm grew in his vitals which, gradually gnawing its way through his intestines, fattened on the abandoned man till, tortured with excruciating sufferings and venting himself in bitter moans, he was by a fitting punishment brought ...
— Mark Twain, A Biography, 1835-1910, Complete - The Personal And Literary Life Of Samuel Langhorne Clemens • Albert Bigelow Paine

... to every one of us without measure, to give us all necessary strength and holiness when we pray for it; and Almighty God tells us Himself, "Fear ye not the reproach of men, neither be ye afraid of their revilings. For the moth shall eat them up like a garment, and the worm shall eat them like wool; but My righteousness shall be for ever, and My ...
— Parochial and Plain Sermons, Vol. VII (of 8) • John Henry Newman



Words linked to "Worm" :   red worm, worm-eaten, oligochaete worm, tongue worm, velvet worm, potato worm, flatworm, polychaete worm, parasitic worm, squirm, fishing worm, peanut worm, polychete worm, trematode worm, Guinea worm, annelid, army worm, nematode, pogonophoran, nemertine, worm snake, arrowworm, wriggle, worm gear, beard worm, worm family, worm fence, platyhelminth, chaetognath, measuring worm, dirt ball, acanthocephalan, ribbon worm, worm lizard, proboscis worm, vinegar worm, annelid worm, worm wheel, worm salamander, segmented worm, bladder worm, wormy, wrench, louse, wrestle, worm fish, invertebrate, nemertean, nematode worm, dew worm, worm-shaped, helminth, spiny-headed worm, screw, roundworm



Copyright © 2024 Diccionario ingles.com