measuring wormn.
/ˈmɛʒ(ə)rɪŋ wəːm/, U.S. /ˈmɛʒ(ə)rɪŋ ˌwərm/ Chiefly North American.
The larva of a geometrid moth; a looper caterpillar or inchworm; = inch-worm n. at inch n.1 Compounds 4.Cf. measure-moth n. at measure n. Compounds, measurer n. 5.
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the world > animals > invertebrates > phylum Arthropoda > class Insecta > Heterocera > [noun] > family Geometridae > class of caterpillars > member of
surveyor1682
looper1731
span-worm1820
geometric caterpillar1835
measuring worm1843
span-worm1852
inch-worma1861
measurer1868
loop-worm1880
1843 J. E. DeKay Zool. N.Y. vi. 41 It walks after the manner of some caterpillars called Measuring worms.
1881 Harper's Mag. Sept. 558/2 Still bent over as before, like a huge measuring worm, he took the beech poker, and..thrust it into the stove.
1939 C. D. Duncan & G. B. Pickwell World of Insects x. 172 Certain large measuring-worms, of the family Geometridae, have the ability, when danger threatens, to stiffen themselves out at angles to the stem on which they have been feeding or crawling, and thereafter for several minutes or hours to resemble perfectly bare and lifeless twigs.
1956 W. R. Bird Off-trail in Nova Scotia viii. 215 I saw some of those long ‘loopers’ or ‘measuring worms’ that I hadn't seen since a boy.
1993 R. H. Arnett Amer. Insects 575/1 Larvae [of geometers] are equally easy to recognize. These are the inchworms, measuringworms, spanworms, or loopers (their common name depends upon the region in which they live).
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2001; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1843