ˈworm-ˌeaten, pa. pple. and ppl. a.
Eaten into by a worm or worms.
| 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xvii. lxxiv. (1495) Q iij/1 Frute..yf it be not roten nother worme eten. c 1420 Liber Cocorum (1862) 45 Take white pese and wasshe hom wele;..Devoyde þo worme-etone alle bydene. 1493 Festyvall (W. de W. 1515) 139 An olde staffe of asshe that..was all worme eten. c 1570 Misogonus iii. iii. 84 A neighboure of yours w{supc}{suph} is payned in hir mandible w{supt}{suph} a wormetone toth. 1590 Spenser F.Q. ii. ix. 57 Some made in books, some in long parchment scrolles, That were all worme-eaten, and full of canker holes. 1599 Shakes. Much Ado iii. iii. 145 Smircht worm-eaten tapestrie. 1600 Abbot On Jonah xx. 434 The worke of wormes shall not be refused, to cloath a worme-eaten body. 1653 W. Ramesey Astrol. Restored 72 He found [it] in an old rotten worm-eaten book. 1679 Rector's Bk. Clayworth (1910) 45 Y⊇ beans were sound and y⊇ pease wormeaten. a 1704 T. Brown Walk Lond. & Westm. Wks. 1720 III. 316 Old worm-eaten Presses, whose Doors flew open on our Approach. 1827 Clare Sheph. Cal. 148 Then, like worm-eaten fruit, it drops and dies. 1838 Dickens O. Twist xxxviii, Old worm-eaten ship timber. 1883 J. G. Wood in Sunday Mag. Oct. 628/2 No one ever yet found an unsound or worm-eaten nut in a squirrel's store. |
b. transf. Applied to organic tissue which is indented with small holes.
In Elizabethan writers as a jocular description of a ‘grog-blossom’ nose.
| 1592 Nashe P. Penilesse Wks. (Grosart) II. 18 A huge woorme-eaten nose, like a cluster of grapes hanging downewards. 1603 Dekker Wonderf. Yeare F 1 An Antiquary might haue pickt rare matter out of his Nose, but that it was worme-eaten (yet that proued it to be an auncient Nose). 1897 Allbutt's Syst. Med. III. 966 The whole of the colon above the stricture was distended and worm-eaten by small ulcers. Ibid. IV. 746 A larger superficial ulcer..with irregular ‘worm-eaten’ or ‘mouse-nibbled’ margins. 1899 Ibid. VI. 550 The surface [of the bone] has a worm-eaten appearance. |
c. fig. (of persons and things). Decayed, decrepit; antiquated, outworn.
| c 1575 W. Wager Longer thou livest 329 (Brandl) You begin to be scabbie and worme eaten, It is time Salt vpon you to strow. 1589 R. Harvey Pl. Perc. (1590) 6 His worm⁓eaten Conscience. 1597 Morley Introd. Mus. 158 Your close in the treble part is so stale that it is almost worme eaten. 1604 ? Dekker Newes fr. Grauesend Ep. Ded. A 4 That worme-eaten name of Liberall... It's a name of the old fashion. 1614 Ralegh Hist. World i. vii. §4. 103 And therefore..were all thinges among the Greekes (which antiquitie had worne out of knowledge) called Ogygia, which we in English commonly call (worme-eaten) or of defaced date. 1637 Rutherford Lett. (1671) 187 O poor fools who are beguiled with painted things..and rotten worm-eaten hopes! 1721 Ramsay Tartana 362 These musty Fools Who only move by old worm-eaten Rules. 1888 Pall Mall Gaz. 13 Sept. 5/1 The worm-eaten bibliophile. |
| absol. 1730 Pope Let. to Gay 1 Oct., The employment I am fittest for—conversation with the dead, the old, and the worm-eaten. |
Hence † worm-eatenness, worm-eaten condition.
| 1617 Rider Bibl. Schol., Caries..Rottennesse or worm-eatennesse in wood. 1617 Barbier Janua Ling. 94 The tops of chesnut trees rot with rustie wormeatennesse. 1666 J. Smith Old Age 85 By the ceasing of the teeth we must understand, all those infirmities that are incident to them by reason of age, whether looseness, hollowness, rottenness,..wormeatenness, [etc.]. 1730 Bailey (folio), Verminousness, Fulness of Worms, Worm-eatenness. |