Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Any of various luminous female beetles or beetle larvae of the families Phengodidae and Lampyridae, especially the larva or wingless grublike female of a firefly.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The common English name of Lampyris noctiluca, a species of pentamerous beetles, of the family Lampyridæ and subfamily Lampyrinæ: a name applicable strictly only to the female, which is wingless, somewhat resembles a caterpillar, and emits a shining green light from the end of the abdomen. The male is winged and not phosphorescent, resembling an ordiuary beetle; he flies about in the evening, and is attracted by the light of the female. The same name is given to other species of Lampyris, as L. splendidula. Some related beetles are known in the United States as fireflies and lightning-bugs.
Wiktionary
- n. The larva or wingless grub-like female of a beetle from the families Phengodidae or Lampyridae that gives out a green light from its abdomen.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A coleopterous insect of the genus Lampyris; esp., the wingless females and larvæ of the two European species (L. noctiluca, and L. splendidula), which emit light from some of the abdominal segments.
WordNet 3.0
- n. the luminous larva or wingless grub-like female of a firefly
Examples
“Your poetical pieces will do very well but the glowworm will remain at the top unless you can ever beat it.”
“Outside the walls, a human glowworm passed to and fro, this being the blur of pedestrian traffic.”
“Ginger, bleeding badly, tracked the gun right through the glowworm incandescence of the Eotech sight and brought the gun right to bear on what of Bob he could see or sense, even while rising to his feet.”
“Iz read much about the glowworm cave, and teh New Milford trek, nd ov course teh LotR showed so much heart-stopping beautiful scenery.”
that’s how I roll. - Lolcats 'n' Funny Pictures of Cats - I Can Has Cheezburger?
“I watched until the mosquitoes wore me down, and then headed home, not using my flashlight, because I hoped to catch a glimpse of the glowworm which Irene and I had discovered a couple of summers back.”
“We're all worms," he said, "but I do believe I am a glowworm.”
“His enchanted forest is a field of hanging upside-down glowworm lights and Magritte umbrellas.”
“It is no brighter at this distance than the torch of the poor glowworm, and yet, my good youth, that light is more dear to Mary Stuart, than every star that twinkles in the blue vault of heaven.”
“The next time you're travelling through Waitomo in NZ maybe stopping for a spell at the glowworm caves or taking in some black water rafting you might consider checking into this motel for the night.”
“But that which comes nearest seems to be rotten wood, which shines by night and yet is not found to be hot; and the putrefying scales of fish, which also shine in the dark and yet are not warm to the touch; nor, again, is the body of the glowworm, or of the fly called Luciola, found to be warm to the touch.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘glowworm’.
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respelt
'He spent the greater part of his life campaigning to have respelt those words that LOOK as though they are spelt wrongly but aren't.'
Re Otto Tibbit's father, fourteen times Scrabble champio...skiing, vacuum, freest, eczema, gnu, diarrhoea, taxiing, piing, safariing, qamchiing, dooziing, hongiing and 49 more...
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Things that might glow in the dark
glowworm, lightning bug, firefly, Vibrio fischeri, radium dial, Hawaiian bobtail ..., railroad worm, foxfire, distant cities, Cherenkov radiation, Wint-O-Green Life..., glow sticks and 48 more...
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Time for a new list!
abrupt, erupt, rupture, sync, appropinquity, heterochromia, homochromatic, monochromatic, willy nilly, nitty gritty, kowtow, wonton and 455 more...
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Chromonyms
These chromonyms are defined as colors in at least one dictionary (mostly MW3). (Actually there's one fake, for reasons I'll explain someday.) They are all one-word nouns such as "kelly", which can...
absinthe, acacia, acorn, alabaster, alesan, almond, aloma, amaranth, amber, amethyst, anemone, anil and 821 more...
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Hedgepiglet
Words for things both tangible and nonanthropic
rorqual, vellus, wrasse, rainbow bee-eater, tinkershire, lemonquat, boomslang, tufted vetch, cubeb, nipplefruit, madapple, wad and 443 more...
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Words Covered in Faery Dust (G)
words that evoke magic, mystery, mayhem, magnificence or anything else that glimmers in the grass
gable, gaia, gala, galaxy, gallows, gambol, garden, garland, garnet, gauntlet, gazebo, gazelle and 105 more...
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theinfonaut's Words
pithy, voraciousness, aphorism, crumple, flaneur, coquettish, grace, discriminating, oscillation, assumption, nasturtium, petiole and 90 more...
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♥
ambrosia, inamorata, gossamer, lily-white, hummingbird, roucoulement, poppy, daisy, calypso, lunula, lamb, dove and 1466 more...
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ulyssean
... as in "by James Joyce"
stately, plump, aloft, gurgling, untonsured, chrysostomos, jowl, parapet, jesuit, indigestion, scutter, noserag and 688 more...
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Benandanti
All things Light
aureole, aura, aurora borealis, aglow, lucent, lambent, radiant, bright, burn, fire, solstice, brazier and 94 more...
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Sog's Ark
Unlike Noah, I have only one of each animal.
salamander, panther, aardvark, leopard, elver, weasel, cheetah, orang utan, snail, parakeet, slater, scarab and 23 more...
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G is for Guitar Face
My G Words
good grief, gruesome twosome, gal friday, gallop, galoshes, gangbusters, gaslight, gestapo, gigolo, gingersnaps, girdle, girl friday and 62 more...
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ww
Words with double w's.
arrowwood, arrowworm, pillowwork, yellowwort, screwworm, sawway, sawwort, willowwood, bowwow, slowworm, powwow, snowworm and 53 more...
Joyce, Ulysses, 9 Jan 5, 2007