verminate

[vur-muh-neyt]

verb (used without object)

verminated, verminating 

1. to become infested with vermin, especially parasitic vermin.

2. Archaic.,  to breed or infest with vermin.

Other Word Forms

• vermination noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of verminate¹

1685–95; < Latin verminātus, past participle of vermināre to be infested with maggots, to have racking pains, equivalent to vermin ( a ) racking pain + -ātus -ate ¹; dual sense of vermināre by association with vermis worm, maggot, vermin- being taken, perhaps erroneously, as an extended stem of this word