maggot
/ˈmæɡət/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 2.78 in modern English
10
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A soft, legless larva of a fly or other dipteran insect, that often eats decomposing organic matter.
Example Sentences
- "Drop and give me fifty, maggot."
- ""Maggot!" said Catweazle angrily. "Sit thee down!""
- "Are you not mad, my friend? What time o' th' moon is't? / Have not you maggots in your brain?"
- "‘I am ashamed of him! how can he think of humouring you in such maggots!’"
- "[…] If you draw, Sir, there's one prospect up the river, by the mills—upon my conscience—but you don't draw?' No answer. 'A little, Sir, maybe? Just for a maggot, I'll wager—like my good lady, Mrs. Toole.'"
- "Scotland Yard have two maggots which crop up whenever anything happens to a young woman. Either it’s White Slavery or Dope Dens—sometimes both."
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.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Usage
Inflected Forms
maggots (plural)
maggots (present, singular)
maggoting (participle, present)
maggoted (participle, past)
maggoted (past)
more maggot (comparative)
most maggot (superlative)