English Explanatory Dictionary

maggot

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. A soft, legless larva of a fly or other dipteran insect, that often eats decomposing organic matter.
  2. A worthless person.
  3. A whimsy or fancy.
  4. A fan of the American metal band Slipknot.
  5. Alternative form of MAGAt.
verb
  1. To rid (an animal) of maggots.
adj
  1. Alternative form of maggoted (“drunk; intoxicated”).

Pronunciation

/ˈmæɡət/ En-us-maggot.wav /ˈmeɪ̯ɡət/

Word forms

maggot maggots maggoting maggoted more maggot most maggot

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.

Synonyms

grub

Related words

mawk mawkish

Derived words

act the maggot antimaggot apple maggot demaggot dog and maggot fox maggot gag a maggot MAGAt maggot bag maggot cheese maggoted maggotiness maggoting maggotish maggotless maggotlike maggotorium maggot-pated maggotpated maggot-pie maggotry maggot therapy maggoty onion maggot pea-maggot rat-tailed maggot white maggot
This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.
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