blindworm

American  

[blahynd-wurm] / ˈblaɪndˌwɜrm /

noun

1. a limbless European lizard, Anguis fragilis, related to the glass lizards.

2. a caecilian, Ichthyophis glutinosus, of Sri Lanka, that coils around its eggs.

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blindworm British  

/ ˈblaɪndˌwɜːm /

noun

1. another name for slowworm

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Etymology

Origin of blindworm

1425–75; late Middle English; blind, worm; so called because the eyes are very small

Example Sentences

The lizard has its jaws fixed; so has the blindworm.

From Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Volume 2, No. 12, May, 1851. by Various

I occasionally saw a snake, but always of the harmless, blindworm variety.

From Jethou or Crusoe Life in the Channel Isles by Suffling, Ernest R. (Ernest Richard)

I touched it with my stick, when the pot-handle drew itself out of loop shape and slowly disappeared under some dead furze, showing the blunt tail of a blindworm.

From Field and Hedgerow Being the Last Essays of Richard Jefferies by Jefferies, Richard

"The greater slow worm, called also the blindworm, is commonly thought to be blind, because of the littleness of his eyes."—GREW: ib.

From The Grammar of English Grammars by Brown, Goold

And within the grave there is no pleasure, for the blindworm battens on the root, And Desire shudders into ashes, and the tree of Passion bears no fruit.

From Selected Poems of Oscar Wilde by Wilde, Oscar