Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A small European lizard, Anguis fragilis, of the family Anguidæ, having a slender limbless body and tail, like a snake, rudimentary shoulder-girdle, breast-bone, and pelvis, a scaly skin, concealed ears, and small eyes furnished with movable lids: so called because supposed to be a sightless worm, a notion as erroneous as is the supposition that it is poisonous. Also called orvet and slow-worm.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Zoöl.) A small, burrowing, snakelike, limbless lizard (Anguis fragilis), with minute eyes, popularly believed to be blind; the slowworm; -- formerly a name for the adder.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun the slowworm

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun any of the small slender limbless burrowing wormlike amphibians of the order Gymnophiona; inhabit moist soil in tropical regions
  • noun small burrowing legless European lizard with tiny eyes; popularly believed to be blind

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[From its small eyes.]

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Examples

  • "I can understand the reasons why Andy is being spoken about because he is different," he revealed, adding "Apart from his size he is also a left-footed player" lest we might conclude that this difference involved living in a fridge, communicating only via the lyrics of The Carpenters and slithering around on his belly after dark like a blindworm.

    Will Andy Carroll prove the difference that destroys the planet? Harry Pearson 2010

  • I found delightful adventures in the woods—one day a blindworm and an adder fighting in a green hollow—and sometimes Mrs. Earle would be afraid to tidy the room because I had put a bottle full of newts on the mantelpiece.

    Collected Works of W. B. Yeats Volume III Autobiographies W.B. Yeats 1965

  • I found delightful adventures in the woods—one day a blindworm and an adder fighting in a green hollow—and sometimes Mrs. Earle would be afraid to tidy the room because I had put a bottle full of newts on the mantelpiece.

    Collected Works of W. B. Yeats Volume III Autobiographies W.B. Yeats 1965

  • I found delightful adventures in the woods—one day a blindworm and an adder fighting in a green hollow—and sometimes Mrs. Earle would be afraid to tidy the room because I had put a bottle full of newts on the mantelpiece.

    Collected Works of W. B. Yeats Volume III Autobiographies W.B. Yeats 1965

  • I found delightful adventures in the woods—one day a blindworm and an adder fighting in a green hollow—and sometimes Mrs. Earle would be afraid to tidy the room because I had put a bottle full of newts on the mantelpiece.

    Collected Works of W. B. Yeats Volume III Autobiographies W.B. Yeats 1965

  • It was a greenly weaving ribbon of light, a snakelike stream of glowing, phosphorescent particles that moved like a blindworm over and across the vast rocky shelf.

    Hero Of Dreams Lumley, Brian 1986

  • "He might have had some kind of herb, or maybe some juice from a blindworm, to make us blind."

    Dragon on a Pedestal Anthony, Piers 1983

  • I found delightful adventures in the woods—one day a blindworm and an adder fighting in a green hollow—and sometimes Mrs. Earle would be afraid to tidy the room because I had put a bottle full of newts on the mantelpiece.

    Autobiographies W.B. Yeats 1965

  • I found delightful adventures in the woods—one day a blindworm and an adder fighting in a green hollow—and sometimes Mrs. Earle would be afraid to tidy the room because I had put a bottle full of newts on the mantelpiece.

    Autobiographies W.B. Yeats 1965

  • The blindworm coils where Queens have slept, nor asks

    Brittany & Its Byways Fanny Bury Palliser

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