mawworm

mawworm is the alternative spelling of maw-worm.

Meaning of maw-worm

maw-worm (plural maw-worms)

Any of several parasitic worms which infest the mammalian stomach and intestines, especially a nematode.
- The maw-worm could emerge unexpectedly from any orifice, including, most alarmingly, the corner of people's eyes.1999, Robert Lacey, Danny Danziger, The Year 1000: What life was like at the turn of The First Millennium, London: Abacus, published 2000, page 121

Mawworm (plural Mawworms)

(archaic) A hypocrite.
- That there are a sufficient number of Mawworms and Cantwells in the profession, is abundantly proved by the number of signatures obtained to the petition against opening the Crystal Palace on Sundays.1853 - "Editor's letter box", Provincial Medical and Surgical Journal, vol.1 (new series), no.49, p.1090, 9 December 1853
- So, according to this Mawworm, it is not the play itself but its being acted publicly that is so pernicious.1862 March 15, “Military mawwormism”, in Punch, page 103

plural	mawworms
plural	Mawworms

The name of a character in the play The Hypocrite (1768) by Isaac Bickerstaffe; from maw-worm.

What does mawworm mean?: Mawworm means a hypocrite.
What is mawworm the alternative spelling of?: Mawworm is the alternative spelling of maw-worm.
What part of speech is mawworm?: Mawworm is a noun.
What is the plural of mawworm?: The plural of mawworm is mawworms.

Adapted from Wiktionary: mawworm (page history and authors); Mawworm (page history and authors); maw-worm (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this entry: “mawworm.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/mawworm. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.