Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun The legless, soft-bodied, wormlike larva of any of various dipteran flies, often found in decaying matter.
- noun Slang A despicable person.
- noun Archaic An extravagant notion; a whim.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun Properly, the larva of a fly or other insect: hence, in general, a grub; a worm: applied to footless larvæ, and especially to the larvæ of flies.
- noun A whim; a crotchet; an odd fancy: mostly in such expressions as a maggot in one's head.
- noun A frisky fellow; one given to pranks.
- noun A whimsical impromptu melody or song.
- noun (See also cheese-maggot, meat-maggot.)
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Zoöl.) The footless larva of any fly. See
larval . - noun A whim; an odd fancy.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A soft, legless
larva of a fly or otherdipterous insect, that often eatsdecomposing organic matter. - noun A term of insult for a 'worthless' person, as if a bug.
- noun obsolete A
whimsy orfancy .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun the larva of the housefly and blowfly commonly found in decaying organic matter
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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A rose by any other name might smell as sweet, but were it called a maggot, a schist or a cloaca, we would think of it quite differently.
Why Juliet Could Never Be Plain Julie Claire Messud 2011
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The larvae preferentially consume dead tissue (steering clear of live), they excrete an antibacterial agent, and they stimulate wound healing -- all factors that could be linked to the lower occurrence of infection in maggot-treated wounds.
Boing Boing: September 12, 2004 - September 18, 2004 Archives 2004
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He said that he had not been "maggot" - slang for getting out of it - for almost two weeks, so was going to make the most of it.
New Zealand Herald - Top Stories newsfeeds@nzherald.co.nz 2010
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In the blog Bitesize Bio I came across a press release PDF from Monarch Labs on their Larval Debridement Therapy, also known as maggot therapy.
Rambles at starchamber.com » Blog Archive » Larval Debridement Therapy 2009
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The egg of a common house-fly hatches into a larva called a maggot; in this condition the body destined to become the vastly different fly is composed of soft-skinned segments very much alike and also similar to the joints of a worm.
The Doctrine of Evolution Its Basis and Its Scope Henry Edward Crampton
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Chironomus, in the thoracic region of the legless maggot, which is the larva of an insect of this family, and the imaginal discs for eyes and feelers (fig. 11 _e_, _f_) lie just in front of it.
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The broad end of the maggot is the tail, while the narrow extremity marks the position of the mouth.
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The soil of this island is poor for any purpose but growing timber; the inhabitants consequently are not many, and they live on roots and fish and what we should think still poorer food – a great wood maggot, which is found in plenty.
The Old Helmet 1864
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The soil of this island is poor for any purpose but growing timber; the inhabitants consequently are not many, and they live on roots and fish and what we should think still poorer food -- a great wood maggot, which is found in plenty.
The Old Helmet, Volume II Susan Warner 1852
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In a process called maggot debridement treatment, the bugs are placed directly onto a wound, where they remove dead tissue known as slough, which prevents healing.
NYDN Rss RHEANA MURRAY 2011
jookerie commented on the word maggot
It makes me shiver! It's such a horrible sounding word,kind of rolling off your tongue.
June 23, 2008
yarb commented on the word maggot
Mmmm - yes indeed. Shuddersome.
June 23, 2008
hernesheir commented on the word maggot
(n): In traditional dance and music (primarliy English and American), a term referring to either the name of a tune, a specific dance, or both. In this context, maggot seems to connote earworm. Titles/names include Draper's Maggot, Miss Spark's Maggot, and Mr. Isaac's Maggot.
January 17, 2009