Word.ws English Dictionary

worm in the apple

worm in the apple noun: a serious flaw in something otherwise good; a problem that ruins everything else.

Noun

worm in the apple (plural worms in the apple)

  1. A serious flaw in something otherwise good; a problem that ruins everything else.
    • The worms in the apple, of course, are Baby Boom liberals who latched on to the one institution they could control—the university.2007, Leonard Steinhorn, The Greater Generation: In Defense of the Baby Boom Legacy, →ISBN
    • In this witty satire Cheever, acting as both narrator and observer, seeks to find the Crutchman's fatal flaw, the “worm in the apple” that will bring them down to the level of everyone else.2010, Kurt F. Stone, The Jews of Capitol Hill: A Compendium of Jewish Congressional Members, →ISBN

Synonyms of worm in the apple

Forms of worm in the apple

pluralworms in the apple

Questions about worm in the apple

What does worm in the apple mean?
Worm in the apple means a serious flaw in something otherwise good; a problem that ruins everything else.
What part of speech is worm in the apple?
Worm in the apple is a noun.
What is the plural of worm in the apple?
The plural of worm in the apple is worms in the apple.

Words near worm in the apple in the dictionary

  1. worm fevers
  2. worm food
  3. worm gear
  4. worm gears
  5. worm has turned
  6. worm in the apple
  7. worm lizard
  8. worm lizards
  9. worm month
  10. worm months
  11. worm moon

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: worm in the apple (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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