tapeworm
/ˈteɪpˌwɝm/ noun, verb
Forms tapeworms tapeworming tapewormed
- noun (countable) Any parasitical worm of the class or infraclass Cestoda, which infests the intestines of animals, including humans, often infecting different host species during their life cycle.
- noun (countable) A broad fish tapeworm, Diphyllobothrium latum.
- noun (uncountable) Infection by tapeworms.
- verb (intransitive) To move along in a wriggling manner, like a tapeworm.
- verb (transitive) To treat (an animal) for tapeworm infection.
Synonyms
Etymology
From tape + worm.
Webster’s 1913
- noun Any one of numerous species of cestode worms belonging to Tænia and many allied genera. The body is long, flat, and composed of numerous segments or proglottids varying in shape, those toward the end of the body being much larger and longer than the anterior ones, and containing the fully developed sexual organs. The head is small, destitute of a mouth, but furnished with two or more suckers (which vary greatly in shape in different genera), and sometimes, also, with hooks for adhesion to the walls of the intestines of the animals in which they are parasitic. The larvæ (see Cysticercus) live i
Sources: Wiktionary · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “tapeworm”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details