Meaning of witworm | Babel Free

Definitions

One who, or that which, feeds on wit (possibly destroying it).

obsolete

Examples

“What hast thou done With thy poor innocent self […]Thus to come⟳ forth, so suddenly, a wit-worm?”

“Sentimental misses long for poetry— dandies crave the latest fashions— politicasters fatten on battles and revolutions— witworms want⟳ anecdotes— censors snap⟳ at editorial paragraphs— gossips devour scandal— merchants derive sustenance from ship-news, and hypochondriacs from death— old maids and bachelors smack their labia over the marriages — weather-wises look⟳ out for squalls, and pinchfists and pickpockets for the state of stocks — and so on cum multis aliis — ad infinitum.”

“"By the flesh-hook of Satan!" cried I, "thou are as merry a witworm as ever waged war against dumpishness. […]”

“Such a course, however, when a neighbor is at hand, with leisure, and of the same spirit, would be recommendable to none, save⟳ only to those witlings, and witsnappers, and witworms, whose jests, though highly appreciable to themselves, will not pass⟳ current among the throng.”

“... the calembour, the scintillating jokesmith and jesting witworm who sets the table in a roar, and lays them in the aisles.”

“Oh, yes, you must definitely be a witworm!”

“What would he do were he confronted not with an example, but with the thing itself? Turn⟳ to a powder, like⟳ any other witworm? Oxenstierna had small use⟳ for scholars.”

CEFR level