muckworm

English

Etymology

muck +‎ worm

Noun

muckworm (plural muckworms)

1. A larva living in mud or manure.
2. Someone who gathers wealth through overwork of employees and sordid means; a miser.
   • 1748, James Thomson, “Canto I”, in The Castle of Indolence‎^[1]:

     Here you a muckworm of the town might see, / At his dull desk, amid his legers stall'd, / Eat up with carking care and penurie; / Most like to carcase parch'd on gallows-tree.

   • 1840, Douglas William Jerrold, “The Money-Lender”, in The Writings of Douglas Jerrold‎^[2], published 1853, page 279:

     We have painted one Money-Lender — not the mere sordid muckworm of a century ago, but the man-eater of the present day.

   • 1993, Marlene Suson, The Lily and the Hawk‎^[3], page 158:

     Perhaps it is far too expensive for a notorious muckworm like you! I, however, am more generous.