thousand-legged worm

English

Noun

thousand-legged worm (plural thousand-legged worms)

  1. (US, uncommon) A millipede.
    • 1906, Minnesota Magazine, page 172:
      ... a thousand-legged worm was squirming down my back just over the spinal column.
    • 1906, University of Minnesota. Agricultural Experiment Station, Report, page 168:
      […] 149 stomaches examined […] showed 19 per cent of ants, 16 per cent of cut worms, 10 per cent of thousand-legged worms, 9 per cent of tent caterpillars, 8 per cent of ground beetles and other close allies, 6 per cent of May beetles and allies, 5 per cent of wire worm beetles and allies, 5 per cent of destructive weevils […]
    • 1917, Rupert Hughes, In a Little Town, page 236:
      ... a thousand-legged worm that one of the boys had stuck a pin through, to watch it writhe and bite itself behind the pin.
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