worms

1. any of a number of creeping or burrowing invertebrate animals with long, slender soft bodies and no limbs.
2. a weak or despicable person (often used as a general term of abuse).

   it was unbearable that such a worm could be so successful

   you ungrateful little worm!

3. a helical device or component.
4. a self-replicating program able to propagate itself across a network, typically having a detrimental effect.

1. move with difficulty by crawling or wriggling.

   I wormed my way along the roadside ditch

2. insinuate one's way into.

   you wormed your way into their lives

3. treat (an animal) with a preparation designed to expel parasitic worms.

   I wormed her over a course of three weeks

4. make (a rope) smooth by winding thread between the strands.

Old English wyrm (noun), of Germanic origin; related to Latin vermis ‘worm’ and Greek rhomox ‘woodworm’.