worm n.
1. the penis.
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Choise of Valentines (1899) 12: Perhaps the sillie worme is labour’d sore, And wearied that it can doe noe more. | |
| Fancies IV i: The young whelp is mad; I must slice the worm out of his breech. | |
| Hey for Honesty IV i: When do the lecherous worms and thee begin To act adultery in the winding-sheets? | |
| Valiant Knight 12: Must my dear Worm and I be parted? | |
| Epilogue Spoken by Heccate and Three Witches 43: When little Worm is prais’d it will so brag o’t, That ’twill set Tail on end of bigger Maggot. | |
 | Female Virtuoso’s Act III: I’m told she designs to keep Hospitality in another World, and Feast the Worms with her Maiden-Head. | |
| London Terraefilius III 39: He also Cuts finely for the Simples; and Destroys the Worm call’d Friskin, very troublesome to the Tails of most young Women. | |
| Oxford Jests n.p.: A little slender Northern lass was ask’d, How she durst venture on so big a Man? Oh, says she, a little Worm may lie under a great Stone. | |
| Sl. and Its Analogues. | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Companion Volume 50: It’s so christly cold out that my worm is frozen. | |
| in Limerick (1953) 295: An ingenious young fellow named Herman / Tied a bow on the end of his worm. | |
| (con. 1910) Show Biz from Vaude to Video 102: Chicago police stopped Sophie Tucker singing ‘Angle Worm Wiggle,’ and when the last of the red-hot mammas took it to court, the judge upheld the police. | |
| 5000 Adult Sex Words and Phrases. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | (con. 1940s–60s) ‘The Kindly Old Bishop of Birmingham’ in Snatches and Lays 101: He’d lower their drawers / And insert the episcopal worm in ’em. | |
| Faggots 321: Think schnitzel, schwantz, sewing machine, slug, spout, sword, tom-tom, wand, wang, water pistol, weener, wienie!, wheezer!, wishbone!, worm!, Ying-Yang! | |
| City of Glass (1988) 21: They are whores. I put my worm inside them, and they moan. | |
| Modern English 73: genitalia: male (n): Worm. | |
| Salt and Honey 145: ‘I’ve bagged a focking lot of birds, Ouseun.’ He giggled like a hyena. ‘When your worm’s been in half the places my python has, then we can talk.’. |
2. a policeman [? SE worm, an unpleasant, despicable person].
| , , | | Sl. Dict. |
| Sl. Dict. | |
| Newcastle Courant 25 Nov. 6/5: ‘I wonder if we’ve been squealed upon.’ ‘I should think not, or we’d a’ had a few worms to fight before we got away’. | |
| Sl. and Its Analogues. | |
![[NZ]](/static/img/flags/nz.png "New Zealand") | Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 204/1: worm n. = shitlicker. |
3. (US Und.) silk; thus worm-worker, a thief who specializes in stealing silk [play on SE silkworm].
![[Can]](/static/img/flags/can.png "Canada") | ‘Thieves’ Sl.’ Toronto Star 19 Jan. 2/5: SILK Worm. | |
| et al. DAUL 239/2: Worm. Silk cloth Worm-worker. A thief who specializes in stealing silk. |
4. (US) in pl., spaghetti; thus worms in blood, spaghetti in tomato sauce.
| Danville (Va.) Bee 27 May 3/1: The U. S. Navy has a language or a ‘slanguage’ all its own. For instance [...] spaghetti [is] ‘worms.’. | |
| Dict. Service Sl. n.p.: worms . . . macaroni [...] spaghetti. | |
| Criminal Sl. (rev. edn). |
5. (US campus) a notably hard worker.
| et al. CUSS. |
6. (drugs) phencyclidine [ety. unknown].
| Dict. Drug Abuse Terms. | |
| ONDCP Street Terms 23: Worm — PCP. |
7. (N.Z. prison) in pl., dreadlocks.
| Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 204/1: worms n pl. dreadlocks. |
In compounds
(orig. US) an eccentric, one whose mind is ‘full of worms’; thus living on a worm farm, crazy, eccentric.
| Serial 99: Get yourself another secretary, Harv. I’m not gonna work for a worm farm. |
(US Und.) selling fake silk.
| Sister of the Road (1975) 307: worm hustling — Selling fake silk. | |
| Criminal Sl. (rev. edn) 255: worm work Silk theft. |
In phrases
to masturbate.
| Roger’s Profanisaurus in Viz 87 Dec. n.p.: burp the worm See bash-the-bishop. | |
| Guardian Editor 28 Apr. 11: Whether he has ever ‘burped his worm’ while watching Barbara Windsor in Carry On Camping. | |
| Fat Dancer 🌐 Euphemisms Top 10: 10) One off the wrist. 9) Making baldie puke. 8) Jerkin the gherkin. [...] 3) Burp the snake. |
SE in slang uses
In compounds
a corpse.
| Power-House 13: He’d be worm meat in a few years. | |
| Criminal Sl. (rev. edn) 255: worm food A corpse. | |
| Plainclothes Naked (2002) 125: The late Dee-Dee Walker is lying on the ground, dead [...] she’s worm bait. | |
| ‘Six Feet Under God’ in Life During Wartime (2018) 188: ‘Your superman drivel causes us a load of trouble about thirty years after you’re worm food’. |
(US) a foot soldier.
| in Four Brothers in Blue (1978) 19 Sept. 119: Yes, you bummers, we do the fighting and leave the dead cavalrymen for the ‘dough boys’ to pick up. Go the rear, you ‘wormcrushers!’. |
a very unpleasant person; thus a general term of abuse.
| Bonfire of the Vanities 43: Come on, wormdick! |
In phrases
(orig. US) addressed to a supposed virgin, this phr. is intended to shame or bluster her into intercourse.
| (ref. to 1940s) Euphemisms 224: A virgin has been saving it for the worms in Canada since the 1940s, and when the euphemism is posed as a question (are you saving it for the worms?), it is intended to seduce a girl. | |
| Metro Times (Detroit) 22 Dec. n.p.: Virgins are more interesting when you know they were once considered to be ‘saving it for the worms.’. | |
| Sex-Lexis 🌐. |
to have a drink of alcohol.
| Sporting Times 9 June 3/2: Say, come back into the bar an’ take one for the worms wi’ me. |