wormhole

plural wormholes · alternative worm-hole · alternative worme-hole

1. A hole burrowed by a worm.

   To fill with worme-holes stately monuments.

   1594, William Shakespeare, Lucrece (First Quarto), London: […] Richard Field, for Iohn Harrison, […], →OCLC

   1 more example

   But he had no sooner got through the worm-hole, than the lad put a small peg in the hole.

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

2. relativityA hypothetical shortcut between two points in spacetime, permitting faster-than-light travel and sometimes time travel.

   Wormhole distortion has overloaded main power systems!

   1979, Alan Dean Foster, Harold Livingston, directed by Robert Wise, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, spoken by Commander Willard Decker (Stephen Collins)

   2 more examples

   […]where there is a net flux of lines of force, through what topologists would call "a handle" of the multiply-connected space, and what physicists might perhaps be excused for more vividly terming a "wormhole".

   1957 December, Charles W. Misner, John Archibald Wheeler, “Classical Physics as Geometry”, in Annals of Physics, volume 2, number 6, pages 525–603

   I think the wormhole that we used to travel here passed directly through this planet's sun.

   2001, Ron Wilkerson, “Red Sky”, in Martin Wood, director, Stargate SG-1, season 5, episode 5, spoken by Captain Samantha Carter (Amanda Tapping)

   Synonyms: Einstein-Rosen bridge

3. slangcomputingA location in a monitor program containing the address of a routine, allowing the user to substitute different functionality.

present singular third person wormholes · participle present wormholing · participle past wormholed · past wormholed · alternative worm-hole · alternative worme-hole

1. transitiveTo make porous or permeable through the formation of small holes or tunnels.