glow-worm
(ˈgləʊwɜːm)
Forms: 4 glou-, 5 gloo-, 6–7 glo-, gloe-, glowe-, 6– glow-worm (etc.: see worm). See also glose-worm.
[f. glow v. + worm.]
A coleopterous insect (Lampyris noctiluca, Linn.), the female of which emits a shining green light from the extremity of the abdomen. The female is wingless; the male is winged, but non-luminous.
| a. c 1320 N. Bozon Contes Moralisés §76. 95 Un autre nature de ceo verm qe est appelle en Latyn eruke et en Engleiz glouworm. 1444 Lydg. in Pol. Poems (Rolls) II. 216 A fowle gloowerm in dirknesse shewith a lyght. 1530 Palsgr. 225/2 Glowe worme that shyneth by night. 1555 Eden Decades 212 In this Iland are certeyne glo woormes that shyne in the nyght as doo owres. 1602 Shakes. Ham. i. v. 89 The Glowworme..gins to pale his vneffectuall Fire. 1626 Bacon Sylva §224 A great Light drowneth a smaller, that it cannot be seene; As the Sunne that of a Gloworme. c 1750 Shenstone Elegies vi. 30 No lover bless'd the glow-worm's pallid ray. 1789 G. White Selborne (1853) 382 Male glow⁓worms attracted by the light..come into the parlour. 1847 Tennyson Princess iv. 7 Where below No bigger than a glow-worm shone the tent. |
b. fig. (In 17th c. often applied contemptuously to persons.)
| 1624 Burton Anat. Mel. ii. iii. ii. 260 A Nobleman there⁓fore in some likelyhood..[is] an outside, a gloworme, a proud foole, an arrant asse. 1628 Timme Silver Watch Bell ix. §7 (ed. 10) 164 Reason (which the Fathers call Noctilucam cerebri, the brains Glo-worme). 1634 Ford P. Warbeck iv. iv, A slave! A vagabond! A glow-worm! 1652 Bp. Hall Rem. Wks. (1660) 152 The world is full of such glow-wormes, that make some show of Spriritual Light from God. |
c. attrib. and Comb.
| 1621 Lady M. Wroth Urania, Pamph. to Amphil. 47 How Glowworme-like the Sun doth now appeare. 1623 B. Jonson Time Vindic., He works by glow-worme light, the Moone's too open. 1630 J. Taylor (Water P.) Wks. ii. 341/1 Though I know my selfe vnworthy farre, With my poore Glow-worme Muse, t'attend this starre. a 1649 Drummond of Hawthornden Poems Wks. (1711) 44 How oft have we..Condemn'd earths glow-worm greatness. 1664 Butler Hud. ii. iii. 450 He..rais'd it [his engine] till it levell'd right Against the glow-worm tail of kite. 1670 Dryden 2nd Pt. Conq. Granada ii. iii, For, glow-worm-like, you shine, and do not see. 1686 A. Horneck Crucif. Jesus iv. 60 Meer glowworm light, that shines, but warms not. |