slowworm

[ sloh-wurm ]

Origin of slowworm

1
before 900; slow + worm; replacing Middle English slowerm, slowurme,Old English slāwerm, slāwyrm, equivalent to slā- (compare dialectal Swedish slo,Norwegian slō slowworm) + wyrm worm

Words Nearby slowworm

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use slowworm in a sentence

  • A silvery creature like a slowworm came crawling out from among them, slowly crossed the clay floor, and crept into the fire.

    Lilith | George MacDonald
  • Since then a large silvery slowworm was killed just there—a great pity, for they are perfectly harmless.

    Field and Hedgerow | Richard Jefferies
  • But the blindworm, or slowworm, as this creature is called, is perfectly harmless.

  • They are wrong; and they must be told that they are wrong, and scolded if they kill a slowworm.

    Madam How and Lady Why | Charles Kingsley

British Dictionary definitions for slowworm

slowworm

/ (ˈsləʊˌwɜːm) /


noun
  1. a Eurasian legless lizard, Anguis fragilis, with a brownish-grey snakelike body: family Anguidae: Also called: blindworm

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012