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teredo

American  
[tuh-ree-doh] / təˈri doʊ /

noun

  • teredos,
    plural
  • teredines
    plural
  1. a shipworm of the genus Teredo.


teredo British  
/ tɛˈriːdəʊ /

noun

  1. any marine bivalve mollusc of the genus Teredo See shipworm

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms


Etymology

Origin of teredo

1350–1400; Middle English < Latin terēdō < Greek terēdṓn wood-boring worm


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:

Matters reached crisis-point in the early 1980s, when it was discovered that the enormous wooden piles which hold up the entire structure were infested with teredo shipworm.

From BBC ● Sep. 11, 2021

"We are seldom engaged on such a trifling affair as this," replied the teredo; "we eat through ships and piers, and piles made of the hard trunks of oaks."

From The Ravens and the Angels With Other Stories and Parables by Elizabeth Rundle Charles

It was expected that the double solution, by forming an insoluble compound, would prove an effective protection against the teredo.

From Scientific American Supplement, No. 514, November 7, 1885 by Various

Whilst he was waiting he found the teredo a very amusing companion.

From The Ravens and the Angels With Other Stories and Parables by Elizabeth Rundle Charles

It is not touched by the teredo and other marine worms.

From Commercial Geography A Book for High Schools, Commercial Courses, and Business Colleges by Jacques W. (Jacques Wardlaw) Redway

The seven plagues of California’s piers are fire, ocean storms, fire, old age, civic budgets, ship worms called teredos, and fire.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 5, 2024

The park, with a heavily used soccer pitch and riverfront walk, sits on century-old timbers that were riddled with shipworms, or teredos, tiny mollusks that bore into wood.

From New York Times ● Feb. 8, 2011

But now it is time to show another set of teredos, who burrowed and swarmed in the government offices where the principal scenes of our present study took place.

From Bureaucracy by Katharine Prescott Wormeley

The piles that supported the wharves often needed renewing, being eaten by teredos.

From Out of the Triangle: a story of the Far East by Mary E. (Mary Ellen) Bamford

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