glowworm
See also: glow-worm
English
Alternative forms
Etymology
From Middle English glouworm; equivalent to glow + worm.
Noun
- The larva or wingless grub-like female of a beetle from the families Lua error in Module:taxlink at line 68: Parameter "noshow" is not used by this template. or Lampyridae that gives out a green light from its abdomen.
- c. 1600, William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act I, Scene 5,[1],
- The glowworm shows the matin to be near
- And ’gins to pale his uneffectual fire.
- Adieu, adieu, adieu! Remember me.
- 1604, William Alexander, The Alexandraean Tragedie, Act V, Scene 2, in The Monarchicke Tragedies, London: Ed. Blount, 1607,[2]
- Some things afarre doe like the Glow-worme shine,
- That lookt to neere haue of that light no signe.
- c. 1613, John Webster, The Duchess of Malfi, London: John Waterson, 1623, Act IV, Scene 2,[3]
- Glories (like glowe-wormes) a farre off, shine bright,
- But look’d to neere, haue neither heate, nor light.
- 1681, Andrew Marvell, “The Mower to the Glo-Worms” in Miscellaneous Poems, London: Robert Boulter, p. 44,[4]
- Ye Glo-worms, whose officious Flame
- To wandring Mowers shows the way,
- That in the Night have lost their aim,
- And after foolish Fires do stray;
- 1819, William Wordsworth, “The Waggoner” Canto 1, in The Miscellaneous Poems of William Wordsworth, London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme & Brown, 1820, p. 7,[5]
- Confiding Glow-worms, ’tis a night
- Propitious to your earth-born light!
- 1954, Dylan Thomas, Under Milk Wood, New York: New Directions, p. 1,[6]
- Young girls lie bedded soft or glide in their dreams, with rings and trousseaux, bridesmaided by glowworms down the aisles of the organplaying wood.
- c. 1600, William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act I, Scene 5,[1],
- (Australia, New Zealand) A carnivorous gnat larva in the keroplatid genus Arachnocampa that spins threads to capture insects attracted by its glow.
Translations
beetle larva or female
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