Pl. -æ. [mod.L., dim. of terebra a borer.]
1. Zool. A genus of worms, typical of the Terebellidæ, a family of marine tubicolous polychætous annelids; a member of this genus.
1826. Good, Bk. Nat. (1834), II. 11. Another genus of molluscous worms is the terebella.
1857. Wood, Com. Obj. Seashore, viii. 95. Sometimes the terebella becomes ambitious, and … affixes a stone of some size to his tube.
1874. Carpenter, Ment. Phys., I. ii. § 43 (1879), 43. A Terebella (a marine Worm that cases its body in a sandy tube).
† 2. Surg. = TEREBELLUM 1. Obs.
1860. Mayne, Expos. Lex., Terebella…. Med., Surg. Old name of an instrument with which bones were pierced;… it was the trepan or trephine.
3. Entom. The ovipositor of a saw-fly.
1826. Kirby & Sp., Entomol., III. 391. Terebellæ, instruments by which the insect saws or bores a passage for its eggs.
