woodworms

Noun

woodworm (countable and uncountable, plural woodworms)

1. Any of many beetle larvae that bore into wood.
   • […] Chrisostome doth compaire enuie to the wood worm which though it doe breede in the tymber, yet it doth consume & waste the tymber, as enuie springing of the heart doth putrifie and vtterly eat vp the heart.1599, Simon Harward, “A Displaying of the wilfull deuises of wicked and vaine worldlings” in Three Sermons, London: Richard Johns
   1. (particularly) Anobium punctatum (common furniture beetle).
2. A shipworm, a worm-like mollusk in the family Teredinidae that feeds on wood underwater in saltwater.