Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun The legless, soft-bodied, wormlike larva of any of various dipteran flies, often found in decaying matter.
- noun Slang A despicable person.
- noun Archaic An extravagant notion; a whim.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun Properly, the larva of a fly or other insect: hence, in general, a grub; a worm: applied to footless larvæ, and especially to the larvæ of flies.
- noun A whim; a crotchet; an odd fancy: mostly in such expressions as a maggot in one's head.
- noun A frisky fellow; one given to pranks.
- noun A whimsical impromptu melody or song.
- noun (See also cheese-maggot, meat-maggot.)
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Zoöl.) The footless larva of any fly. See
larval . - noun A whim; an odd fancy.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A soft, legless
larva of a fly or otherdipterous insect, that often eatsdecomposing organic matter. - noun A term of insult for a 'worthless' person, as if a bug.
- noun obsolete A
whimsy orfancy .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun the larva of the housefly and blowfly commonly found in decaying organic matter
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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A rose by any other name might smell as sweet, but were it called a maggot, a schist or a cloaca, we would think of it quite differently.
Why Juliet Could Never Be Plain Julie Claire Messud 2011
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The larvae preferentially consume dead tissue (steering clear of live), they excrete an antibacterial agent, and they stimulate wound healing -- all factors that could be linked to the lower occurrence of infection in maggot-treated wounds.
Boing Boing: September 12, 2004 - September 18, 2004 Archives 2004
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He said that he had not been "maggot" - slang for getting out of it - for almost two weeks, so was going to make the most of it.
New Zealand Herald - Top Stories newsfeeds@nzherald.co.nz 2010
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In the blog Bitesize Bio I came across a press release PDF from Monarch Labs on their Larval Debridement Therapy, also known as maggot therapy.
Rambles at starchamber.com » Blog Archive » Larval Debridement Therapy 2009
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The egg of a common house-fly hatches into a larva called a maggot; in this condition the body destined to become the vastly different fly is composed of soft-skinned segments very much alike and also similar to the joints of a worm.
The Doctrine of Evolution Its Basis and Its Scope Henry Edward Crampton
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Chironomus, in the thoracic region of the legless maggot, which is the larva of an insect of this family, and the imaginal discs for eyes and feelers (fig. 11 _e_, _f_) lie just in front of it.
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The broad end of the maggot is the tail, while the narrow extremity marks the position of the mouth.
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The soil of this island is poor for any purpose but growing timber; the inhabitants consequently are not many, and they live on roots and fish and what we should think still poorer food – a great wood maggot, which is found in plenty.
The Old Helmet 1864
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The soil of this island is poor for any purpose but growing timber; the inhabitants consequently are not many, and they live on roots and fish and what we should think still poorer food -- a great wood maggot, which is found in plenty.
The Old Helmet, Volume II Susan Warner 1852
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In a process called maggot debridement treatment, the bugs are placed directly onto a wound, where they remove dead tissue known as slough, which prevents healing.
NYDN Rss RHEANA MURRAY 2011
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The Houdini fly is a non-native kleptoparasite. What that means is that it does not attack mason bees directly, but lays its eggs on the pollen meant for the mason bee young inside of the nesting blocks. When the Houdini maggots hatch, they consume the food before the mason bee larvae, which causes them to starve. When the flies are fully formed, they escape from the sealed chambers, earning them the name “Houdini” fly.
Mason Bee Predator Alert – Invasive Houdini Fly Thyra McKelvie 2025
jookerie commented on the word maggot
It makes me shiver! It's such a horrible sounding word,kind of rolling off your tongue.
June 23, 2008
yarb commented on the word maggot
Mmmm - yes indeed. Shuddersome.
June 23, 2008
hernesheir commented on the word maggot
(n): In traditional dance and music (primarliy English and American), a term referring to either the name of a tune, a specific dance, or both. In this context, maggot seems to connote earworm. Titles/names include Draper's Maggot, Miss Spark's Maggot, and Mr. Isaac's Maggot.
January 17, 2009