worm-eaten
Americanadjective
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eaten into or gnawed by worms.
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impaired by time, decayed or antiquated.
adjective
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eaten into by worms
a worm-eaten table
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decayed; rotten
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old-fashioned; antiquated
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of worm-eaten
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.
Sailors on a secret wartime mission had already dealt with typhus, lice, blinding squalls, frostbite, worm-eaten biscuits, scurvy and the death of comrades since they set sail months earlier.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 18, 2023
If the apples will not remain on the tree of their own strength, if they are worm-eaten at the core, if they are early ripe and disposed to fall, let them fall!
From Slate ● Jul. 21, 2022
Even in the throes of syphilis, Oswald seems more Barrymore-bitten here than what Ibsen memorably describes with the French word “vermoulu”: worm-eaten.
From New York Times ● Aug. 12, 2019
A woman peeling off her beautiful white mask to reveal the grotesque, worm-eaten visage within.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 25, 2018
The brilliant snake's eyes that were set so deep in that dreadful rotting worm-eaten face glared unblinkingly at the witches who sat facing her.
From "The Witches" by Roald Dahl
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.
