| 释义 |
ˈworm-like, a. and adv.
A. adj. Resembling a worm in structure, form, movement, etc.; vermiform.
1721Bailey s.v. Valvula major,..the foremost Worm-like Process of the Cerebellum. 1774Goldsm. Nat. Hist. I. 173 The whole body of the water then is found replete with little worm-like insects. 1854Poultry Chron. I. 77 A strange spiral, or worm-like, motion. 1868W. Cory Lett. & Jrnls. (1897) 218 A dreadful fat worm-like black thing with onions..; it was lamprey. 1885Guide Mammalia Brit. Mus. 50 The Ant-eaters have narrow heads with long snouts, to accommodate their enormously long worm-like tongues.
b. fig. (Cf. worm n. 13.)
1805Wordsw. Prelude xi. 252, I..wished that Man Should start out of his earthy, worm-like state, And spread abroad the wings of Liberty. 1877Gladstone Diary 7 May in Morley Life II. vii. iv. 565 Never did I feel weaker and more wormlike.
B. adv. After the manner of a worm.
1813Byron Corsair i. xiv, That heart hath long been changed; Worm-like 'twas trampled, adder-like avenged. 1841Browning Pippa Passes iii, A pale wretch..Who through some chink had pushed and pressed, On knees and elbows, belly and breast, Worm-like into the temple. |