maggot
Meanings
Plural: maggots
Noun
- the larva of the housefly and blowfly commonly found in decaying organic matter
- A soft, legless larva of a fly or other dipterous insect, that often eats decomposing organic matter.
- A worthless person.
- A whimsy or fancy.
- A fan of the American metal band Slipknot.
Verb
- To rid (an animal) of maggots.
Adj
- Alternative form of maggoted (“drunk; intoxicated”).
Origin / Etymology
From Middle English magot, magat, maked, probably a metathetic alteration of maddock, maðek (“worm", "maggot”), originally a diminutive form of a base represented by Old English maþa (Scots mathe), from Proto-West Germanic *maþō, from Proto-Germanic *maþô, from the Proto-Indo-European root *mat, which was used in insect names, equivalent to made + -ock. Near-cognates include Dutch made, German Made and Swedish mask, Icelandic maðkur (“worm, grub, maggot”).
The use of maggot to mean a fanciful or whimsical thing derives from the folk belief that a whimsical or crotchety person had maggots in their brain.
Synonyms
Scrabble Score: 10
maggot is a valid Scrabble (US) TWL wordmaggot is a valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
maggot is a valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary
Words With Friends Score: 13
maggot is a valid Words With Friends word