▪ I. vermiculate, a.
(vəˈmɪkjʊlət)
[ad. L. vermiculāt-us, pa. pple. of vermiculārī: see next.
Several other senses given in various Dicts. are merely inferences from senses of the ppl. adj.]
Vermiculated; vermicular; sinuous. Chiefly fig.
| 1605 Bacon Adv. Learn. i. iv. §5 It is the propertie of good and sound knowledge to putrifie and dissolue into a number of subtile, idle, vnholesome, and (as I may tearme them) vermiculate questions. 1658 Phillips, Vermiculate, worm-eaten. a 1864 R. Choate (Webster), Vermiculate logic. 1872 G. Macdonald Wilf. Cumb. III. xvi. 214 My life seemed only a vermiculate one, a crawling about of half-thoughts-half-feelings through the corpse of a decaying existence. 1891 Cent. Dict. s.v., Vermiculate color-markings. |
b. spec. in Ent. (See quot.)
| 1826 Kirby & Sp. Entomol. IV. xlvi. 271 Vermiculate,..having tortuous excavations as if eaten by worms. |
▪ II. † verˈmiculate, v. Obs.
[f. L. vermiculāt-, ppl. stem of vermiculārī (Pliny), f. vermiculus, dim. of vermis worm.
Other senses which appear in various Dicts. are merely assumed from the ppl. adj.]
1. intr. To become worm-eaten. rare—1.
| c 1631 Elegy on Donne D.'s Poems (1654) B b iv b, Speake, Doth his body there vermiculate, Crumble to dust, and feele the lawes of Fate? |
2. To beat with peristaltic motion. rare—1.
| 1706 Hearne Collect. (O.H.S.) I. 183 Her pulse indeed vermiculates, Her Breath is short & little. |