Varmint
noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A pestilent or predatory ground-borne animal, especially one that kills or harasses a farmer's animals or crops.
- 2 any usually predatory wild animal considered undesirable; e.g., coyote wordnet
- 3 An obnoxious person or troublemaker. broadly
"You'd be but a fierce young hound indeed, if at your time of life you could help to hunt a wretched warmint, hunted as near death and dunghill as this poor wretched warmint is!"
- 4 an irritating or obnoxious person wordnet
Example
More examples"You'd be but a fierce young hound indeed, if at your time of life you could help to hunt a wretched warmint, hunted as near death and dunghill as this poor wretched warmint is!"
Etymology
Dialectal form of vermin, derived from Latin vermis (“worm”), c. 1530–1540s. Perhaps influenced by Latin vargus (“bandit, outlaw, scoundrel”), though the pronunciation in /ɑː(ɹ)/ is more likely due to the same lowering of /ɛr/ > /ar/ found in carve < Middle English kerven and starve < Middle English sterven. The final syllable is probably altered after -ment; compare parchment < Middle English parchemyn.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.