maggoty

English

Alternative forms

• maggotty

Etymology

From maggot +‎ -y.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈmæɡəti/

Adjective

maggoty (comparative more maggoty or (rare) maggotier, superlative most maggoty or (rare) maggotiest)

1. (literally) Infested with and/or partially eaten by maggots; flyblown.

   Synonyms: flyblown, worm-eaten

   • 1980, The Times Literary Supplement, London: The Times, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 470, column 3:

     He pilots his disreputable father-in-law through the maggotier parts of the Big Apple, tries out unsuccessfully for a job as gorilla, pulls off an unconvincing fraud (surely Gothamites don’t hand over against an uncleared cheque?).

     Humorous usage (as though it were an apple).

2. (dated) Full of whims; capricious; freakish.

   Synonym: maggotish

   • 1694, Nicolas Rémond des Cours, unknown translator, The True Conduct of Persons of Quality:

     the Maggoty Turn of Fortune's Wheel

   • 1975, Pauline Kael, The Day of the Locust‎^[1]:

     In the book, what holds the sketchy characters, the narrative chunks, and the ideas together is West's maggoty wit—positioning himself halfway between contempt and fear, clinging to literary sophistication as if it were the Mother Church.

3. Unpleasant or bad-tempered.
   • 1975, Robert Lipscomb Duncan, Dragons at the Gate:

     I want you to know that I think you are a maggoty mother-fucking son of a bitch

Derived terms

• maggotiness
• maggoty-pie

Translations

infested with and/or partially eaten by maggots

• Bulgarian: червясал (bg) (červjasal)
• Dutch: wormstekig (nl)
• Galician: vermioso
• German: madig (de), wurmstichig (de)
• Irish: cruimheach, crumhógach
• Polish: robaczywy (pl)
• Russian: черви́вый (ru) (červívyj)
• Spanish: agusanado (es)
• Walloon: viereus (wa) m

References

• “maggoty”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.