Shipworm

Origin

ship + worm

Full definition of shipworm

Noun

1. Any of several wormlike marine mollusks (not true worms) of the family , that bore through the wooden hulls of ships and other woody material immersed in salt water.
• 1955, Rachel Carson, The Edge of the Sea,Old spars and water-soaked timbers cast on the beach are full of the workings of the shipworm—long cylindrical tunnels penetrating all parts of the wood.
• 2002, Erkki Leppäkoski, Stephan Gollasch, Sergej Olenin, Invasive Aquatic Species of Europe: Distribution, Impacts, and Management,Even though mankind has tried to develop counter measures for thousands of years, still there is no easy solution to the shipworm problem in sight.
• 2004, Donald Launer, A Cruising Guide to New Jersey Waters,In our waters, however, the shipworm seldom attains a length of over a foot-and-a-half long.