a. and sb. [ad. med.L. vermiculāris, f. L. vermiculus: see VERMICULE. So F. vermiculaire (Paré), Sp., Pg. vermicular, It. vermicolare.]
A. adj. 1. Physiol. † a. ? Full of vermicules. Obs. rare–1.
1655. Culpepper & Cole, trans. Riverius, VII. iii. 159. Somtimes it [the blood] is intermitting, watery, vermicular, when the Lungs are rotten by too much moisture.
b. = PERISTALTIC a.
Freq. from c. 1835.
1672. Phil. Trans., VII. 5137. We instance the Vermicular motion of the veins [of plants] when exposed to the air.
1713. Cheselden, Anat., III. xii. (1726), 236. After this it [the food] is continually moved by the … vermicular motion of the guts.
1791. E. Darwin, Bot. Gard., I. Notes 99. In such a structure it is easy to conceive how a vermicular or peristaltic motion of the vessel … must forcibly push forward its contents.
1834. Good’s Study Med. (ed. 4), I. 9. Its [the stomach’s] muscular fibres are calculated to produce a constant undulatory vermicular movement.
1835–6. Todd’s Cycl. Anat., I. 668/1. On the supposition that the arteries undergo an undulatory or vermicular contraction.
1881. Mivart, Cat, 181. This form of movement is also spoken of as the vermicular motion of the intestine.
transf. 1899. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., VIII. 201. Sometimes these muscles are seen working under the skin in vermicular fashion.
2. Having the sinuous shape or form characteristic of a worm; consisting of characterized by, tortuous outlines or markings; sinuous, wavy.
1712. trans. Pomet’s Hist. Drugs, I. 180. The Vermicular, or Worm-like Gum, is one of the Arabian or Senega Gums.
1753. Phil. Trans., XLVIII. 87. This second furrow was … not in a strait line, but in a vermicular direction.
1784. Cowper, Task, I. 30. A generation more refin’d … made three legs four, Gave them a twisted form vermicular.
1815. Kirby & Sp., Entomol., xiv. (1816), I. 438. The vermicular shape … of the masses with which the [larval] cases are surrounded.
1860. Hook, Lives Abps., I. i. 33. His mantle … ornamented with stripes or vermicular figures.
1875. Fortnum, Maiolica, ii. 16. Pottery of Moresque character and ornamentation with vermicular pattern in copper lustre.
b. Bot. (See quot. 1866.)
1766. Compl. Farmer, s.v. Madder, The [madder] plants which are raised from layers … produce very few of those vermicular roots, which are the only valuable ones.
1849. Balfour, Man. Bot., Gloss. 641/1.
1865. Treas. Bot., 1210/2. Vermicular, worm-shaped; thick, and almost cylindrical, but bent in different places.
c. Anat. = VERMIFORM a. 3, 3 b.
1843. J. G. Wilkinson, Swedenborg’s Anim. Kingd., I. v. 148. The vermicular appendage is seen on one side of the fundus of the cœcum, resembling a miniature intestine.
1891. Cent. Dict., s.v., Vermicular appendix or process.
3. Of or pertaining to, characteristic of, a worm or worms; resembling or like a worm.
1713. Derham, Phys.-Theol. (1716), 385. In its Vermicular State it is a red Maggot.
1720. S. Parker, Bibliotheca Bibl., I. 152. Without the Taint of the polluted Vermicular Life.
1752. Phil. Trans., XLVII. 449. Several species of vermicular tubes found in the sea.
1802. Bingley, Anim. Biog. (1813), III. 7. Across the body there are several annular divisions, or rather rugæ of the skin, from which the fish should seem to partake of a vermicular nature.
1804. J. Grahame, Sabbath (1839), 16/1. We may compare the erect spirit of a British legislature with the vermicular servility of … the Senate of France.
1892. Scottish Leader, 24 May, 4. Vermicular patience, however, has its limits.
b. Accomplished or made by worms; performed by means of worms. Also fig.
1715. trans. Pancirollus’ Rerum Mem., II. i. 266. From thence came also Indian Figs, Nuts and Canes, and a vermicular kind of Web made of Silk.
1822. Blackw. Mag., XII. 153. The party, which the work stood pledged to oppose through all its vermicular attacks on the glorious fabric of British Institutions.
1887. Caroline Hazard, Mem. J. L. Diman, xv. 338. The trout here disdain flies. As Lewis phrases it, vermicular fishing is what succeeds.
c. Vermicular work: (see quot. and VERMICULATED ppl. a. 1 c).
1728. Chambers, Cycl., Vermicular Work,… in Sculpture, a sort of Ornaments used in Rustick Work; consisting of Frets, or Knobs, cut with Points, representing, in some sort, the Tracks made by Worms.
4. Of the nature of a worm. Vermicular ascaris, the threadworm, Oxyurus (Ascaris) vermicularis.
1784. Cowper, Lett., 13 Dec. No animal of the vermicular or serpentine kind is crested but the most formidable of all.
1802. Bingley, Anim. Biog. (1813), III. 395. The Vermicular Ascarides are very common in the intestines of children.
1822–7. Good, Study Med. (1829), I. 365. For the cure of vermicular ascarides, or maw-worms and bots, these oils have been used in the form of injections.
fig. and transf. 1825. Examiner, 307/2. Fawcett … wanted a little more personal flexibility…; he cannot, at his time of life, be sufficiently vermicular.
1854. Lowell, Cambridge 30 Yrs. Ago, Prose Wks. 1890, I. 89. Refusing to molest the canker-worms … because we were all vermicular alike.
1872. Ruskin, Arrows of Chace (1880), II. 189. Criminals … are partly men, partly vermin; what is human in them you must punish—what is vermicular, abolish.
b. Comprising or consisting of worms.
1886. H. F. Lester, Under two Fig Trees, viii. 117. Their [sc. worms’] minds, like their bodies, must be glutinous; hence they stick to the thin-end theory…. There is no sect of ‘bigendians’ in the vermicular fold.
5. Path. Of diseases: Due to, caused by, intestinal worms.
1794. R. J. Sulivan, View Nat., I. 237. Hence the probable utility of fixed air in vermicular diseases.
a. 1822. Shelley, Devil, Pr. Wks. 1880, II. 400. Persons subject to vermicular and animalcular diseases.
† B. sb. = VERMICULE. Obs. rare.
1690. R. Clark, Vermiculars Destroyed, 9. A sort of invisible Worms or Vermiculars. Ibid., 11. The Putrefaction … is degenerated into innumerable Vermiculars.
Hence Vermicularly adv.
1812. New Bot. Gard., I. 84. The seeds … vermicularly wrinkled.
