Meanings
plural angleworms · alternative angle worm · alternative angle-worm
- USAn earthworm, used as or destined to be used as bait to catch fish.First known use 18th c.
A bird came down the walk : / He did not know I saw ; / He bit an angle-worm in halves / And ate the fellow, raw.
a. 1887 (date written), Emily Dickinson, “In the Garden”, in Mabel Loomis Todd and T[homas] W[entworth] Higginson, editors, Poems, Second Series, Boston, Mass.: Roberts Brothers, published 1891, page 1401 more example
[B]eneath their surface—now and then breaking through a reflection, revealed when the pools dried—were salamanders, newts, and tangled clumps of angleworms.
1975, Larry Woiwode, Beyond the Bedroom Wall, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, page 192
Synonyms & antonyms
nounterrestrial worm that burrows into and helps aerate soil; often surfaces when the ground is cool or wet; used as bait by anglers
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
Translations
Finnish onkimato, onkiliero
- onkimatoworm used as bait
- onkilieroworm used as bait
Russian червя́к для нажи́вки
- червя́к для нажи́вки (červják dlja nažívki)worm used as bait
Turkish olta solucanı
- olta solucanıworm used as bait
Rhymes & wordplay
Anagrams
Cite this entry
angleworm. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/angleworm
“angleworm.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/angleworm. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “angleworm,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/angleworm.
Source: angleworm on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.