guinea-worm

English

Alternative forms

• Guinea worm, Guinea-worm, guinea worm

Noun

guinea-worm (plural guinea-worms)

1. A long, white parasitic worm, Dracunculus medinensis, which can live in the human skin.

   Synonym: dragon worm

   • 2006, Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day, Vintage, published 2007, page 889:

     the rishta-doctors patiently removing guinea-worms, making an incision, trapping the three-foot-long creature's head in a cleft at the end of a stick, and then slowly winding it out of the incision

Translations

Dracunculus medinensis

• Cerma: tɛ̃tɛ̃iŋo
• Portuguese: verme da Guiné m, bicho da costa m