maggot
Americannoun
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a soft-bodied, legless larva of certain flies.
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Archaic. an odd fancy; whim.
noun
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the soft limbless larva of dipterous insects, esp the housefly and blowfly, occurring in decaying organic matter
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rare a fancy or whim
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of maggot
1425–75; late Middle English magot, magat, unexplained variant of maddock, Middle English mathek < Old Norse mathkr; akin to Danish maddik maggot, Old English matha, mathu grub, maggot, Old High German mado maggot
Explanation
A maggot is a small, wormlike fly larva. Maggots are sometimes found in garbage, compost piles, or other places where they can feed on decaying plants and organic matter. Yum. The nicest way to think of a maggot is as a baby fly — when maggots grow up, that's just what they become. Because maggot isn't a strictly scientific term, its definition can be vague, sometimes meaning "grub" and other times, "larva" in general. Maggots are usually found in a large, wriggling group, and can be harmful to farm animals with cuts or sores, as they can infest their skin.
Vocabulary lists containing maggot
Seedfolks
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The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
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"The Tragedy of Macbeth," Vocabulary from Act 3
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
It is the larval, or maggot, stage of a metallic-looking blowfly known as Cochliomyia hominivorax.
From Science Daily ● Dec. 17, 2025
After feeding for about seven days, a maggot will fall to the ground, dig into the soil and then awaken as an adult fly.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 17, 2025
This enzyme protects the maggot from infections, protecting us in the process.
From Slate ● Feb. 25, 2024
Except when a maggot is present; then only 15 fly eggs are permitted.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 2, 2022
Her flesh was maggot white; wrapped in the violet tokar, she looked like a prune gone to mold.
From "A Dance with Dragons" by George R. R. Martin
“Beauty of the Beasts” explains that even now, in our era of antibiotics, wound cleaning by maggots is typically the safest, most effective therapy.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 30, 2026
Once the eggs hatch, the maggots burrow into flesh in a corkscrew motion, which is how the insect got its name.
From Science Daily ● Dec. 17, 2025
Patients are treated by removal of the maggots, which need to be killed by putting them into a sealed container of concentrated ethyl or isopropyl alcohol then disposed of as biohazardous waste.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 17, 2025
These include unexplained skin lesions, feeling larvae move within a wound or the nose, mouth or eyes and seeing maggots in an open sore.
From BBC ● Aug. 28, 2025
He mated the x-rayed males with females and watched the maggots emerge in the milk bottles.
From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
