1. Any aquatic annelid.
1655. Moufet & Bennet, Health’s Improv., xi. 100. The Kings-fisher feedeth most upon water-worms, and little fishes.
1681. Grew, Musæum, I. § vii. iii. 177. A Water-Worme. Lumbricus Aquaticus.
1797. Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3), VIII. 665/2. Animated Horse-Hairs, a term used to express a sort of long and slender water-worm, by the vulgar supposed to be the hair fallen from a horse’s mane into the water … and there animated by some strange power.
1865. Swinburne, Chastelard, V. i. 176. Bred out of Egypt like the water-worm.
1889. Hardwicke’s Sci.-Gossip, XXV. 139. It is not at all uncommon for some Rotifera … to adhere for a time to larger animals, such as Crustaceæ and water-worms.
1891. Ménie Muriel Dowie, Girl in Karpath., 56. Water-worms, and newts of every description.
b. fig. in derisive use.
1820. Byron, To Murray, 23 April. I hate and abhor that puddle of water-worms [i.e., the lake poets] whom you have taken into your troop.
† 2. Some kind of explosive used under water.
1809. Naval Chron., XXII. 203. Fire-devils, water-worms, Shrapnell-shells.
