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wheal-worm

wheal-worm noun: any of various insects or arachnids the bites of which produce raised sores.

Noun

wheal-worm (plural wheal-worms)

  1. (archaic) Any of various insects or arachnids the bites of which produce raised sores.
    • It may be ſome will think it impoſſible for theſe Wheal-worms to breed between the eyes; but we ſee it is ſo, and we finde it was done ſo formerly1658, Edward Topsell, The History of Four-footed Beasts and Serpents, London: E. Cotes for G. Sawbridge, XXIV Of little Lice called Syrones, Acari, and Tineæ, or Hand-worms, or Mites in living...
  2. (archaic) A harvest mite, Trombicula sp.
    • wheal-worm, n 1. The itch-mite acarus scabiei 2. The acarine Leptus autumnalis, or some similar harvest-bug: so named from the wheals or pimples left by its bite. See cut under harvest-mite.1895, William Dwight Whitney with Benjamin Eli Smith, The Century Dictionary: An Encyclopedic Lexicon of the English Language, volume 8, New York: The Century Co., →OCLC, page 6888
  3. (obsolete) A mite of species Acarus autumnalis, synonym of Neotrombicula autumnalis
    • ACARUS AUTUMNALIS. Harvest-bug. Mower's Mite. Wheal-worm. Rouget. The acarus autumnalis is scarcely larger than the acarus scabiei1865, Sir Erasmus Wilson, “Malis, or cutaneous vermination”, in On Diseases of the Skin, Philadelphia: Lea and Blanchard, →OCLC, page 277
    Synonyms:
    harvest bug, scarlet mite

Synonyms of wheal-worm

Forms of wheal-worm

pluralwheal-worms
alternative formwhealworm

Origin of wheal-worm

Compound of wheal + worm, after the pustule or wheal resulting from a bite.

Questions about wheal-worm

What does wheal-worm mean?
Wheal-worm means any of various insects or arachnids the bites of which produce raised sores.
What part of speech is wheal-worm?
Wheal-worm is a noun.
What is the plural of wheal-worm?
The plural of wheal-worm is wheal-worms.

Words near wheal-worm in the dictionary

  1. WHEA
  2. wheah
  3. wheal
  4. Wheal Busy
  5. Wheal Rose
  6. wheal-worm
  7. wheal-worms
  8. wheals
  9. whealworm
  10. whealworms
  11. whear

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: wheal-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.

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