worm-eaten

comparative more worm-eaten · superlative most worm-eaten

1. Of fruit or other food, eaten by worms, especially having a worm inside.

   Once upon a time there was a lad, who went along a road cracking nuts. He happened to find one which was worm-eaten, and shortly afterwards he met the devil.

   1886, Peter Christen Asbjø￵rnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 36

2. broadlyfigurativelyRotten or decrepit.

   The wooden jetty on the East Pier had become worm-eaten and was demolished, but the Admiralty lent an old hulk to serve as a rough-and-ready packet facility.

   1960 May 28, K. A. Murray, “Carlisle Pier, Dun Laoghaire”, in Railway Magazine, page 302