backworm

English

Etymology

back +‎ worm

Noun

backworm (plural backworms)

1. (obsolete) The thread-like worm found in filanders, the disease of hawks.
   • August 1593, Walter Raleigh, letter‎^[1]:

     The Indian falcon is sick of the backworm

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “backworm”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)