noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   An earthworm of the species Lumbricus terrestris, known for its large size and nocturnal surfacings.
2. 2
   terrestrial worm that burrows into and helps aerate soil; often surfaces when the ground is cool or wet; used as bait by anglers wordnet
3. 3
   More generally, any arbitrarily large earthworm, especially those favored in angling. Northern-US, US, Western

Synonyms

All synonyms

anglewormcrawlerdew wormearthwormearthwormfishing worm

Etymology

From night + crawler.

Related phrases

lumbricus terrestris

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.