[f. TAPE sb.1 + WORM; from its flat ribbon-like form.] A cestoid worm (e.g., Tænia solium), which when adult infests the alimentary canal of vertebrates; = TÆNIA 5.
1683. Phil. Trans., 10 April, 115. Call’d by some in English, the Tape-worm. This flatness of the body, sufficiently distinguishes it from the others, which are usually bred in the body.
1752. J. Hill, Hist. Anim., 15. The flat Tænia. The Tape-worm … is found in the human intestines, and in those of many other animals.
1799. Med. Jrnl., I. 277. Successful experiments, not only to discover that unwelcome visitor the tape worm, but likewise to destroy and expel it.
1860. G. H. Kingsley, in Vac. Tour., 163. The trout in some of the lakes have been infested with tapeworm.
b. fig. A parasite.
1824. W. Irving, T. Trav., II. x. (1849), 246. They were absolute tape-worms to my little theatre; the more it took the poorer it grew.
1860. Emerson, Cond. Life, Culture, Wks. (Bohn), II. 369. Can we never extract this tape-worm of Europe from the brain of our countrymen?
c. attrib. and Comb., as tapeworm infection; tapeworm-shaped adj.; tapeworm-plant, an Abyssinian tree, Brayera anthelmintica (N.O. Rosaceæ), the pistillate inflorescence of which is used as a vermifuge (Cent. Dict., 1891).
1832. Lindley, Introd. Bot., Gloss., IV. 380. Tapeworm-shaped († tænianus); long, cylindrical, contracted in various places, in the manner of the tapeworm.
1839. G. Roberts, Dict. Geol., Tænianus,… tape worm shaped.
1897. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., II. 1019. In many instances of tape-worm infection, the parasite appears to give rise to no inconvenience whatever.
