- [countable]
a long, thin creature with a soft body and no bones or legs 蠕虫 birds looking for worms 觅食蠕虫的鸟 Worms burrow down through the soil. 蠕虫往土里钻。
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryworm + verb- burrow
- crawl
- wriggle
- …
- cast
- worms[plural]
long, thin creatures that live inside the bodies of humans or animals and can cause illness see also hookworm, tapewormTopics Insects, worms, etc.c1(人或动物体内的)寄生虫;肠虫 - [countable]
the young form of an insect when it looks like a short worm see also glow-worm, silkworm, woodwormTopics Insects, worms, etc.c1(昆虫的)幼虫 - [countable] (
computing )计算机 a computer program that is a type of virus and that spreads across a network by copying itself Topics Computersc2蠕虫;蠕虫程序;蠕虫病毒 - [countable, usually singular] (informal, disapproving)
a person you do not like or respect, especially because they have a weak character and do not behave well towards other people 懦夫;可怜虫
Word OriginOld English wyrm (noun), of Germanic origin; related to Latin vermis ‘worm’ and Greek rhomox ‘woodworm’.
Idioms
a can of worms
- (informal)
if you open up a can of worms, you start doing something that will cause a lot of problems and be very difficult 棘手的问题;难题;麻烦事
the early bird catches the worm
- (saying)
the person who takes the opportunity to do something before other people will have an advantage over them 捷足先登;捷足先得
the worm will turn
- (saying)
a person who is normally quiet and does not complain will protest when the situation becomes too hard to bear 老实人被逼急了也要反抗;兔子急了也咬人