Worm

To have a worm in one’s tongue. To be cantankerous; to snarl and bite like a mad dog.

“There is one casy artifice

That seldom has been known to miss—

To snarl at all things right or wrong.

Like a mad dog that has a worm in’s tongue.”

Samuel Butler: Upon Modern Critics.

To worm out information. To elicit information indirectly and piecemeal.

To worm oneself into another’s favour. To insinuate oneself in an underhand manner into the good graces of another person.

⁂ A worm is a spiral instrument resembling a double corkscrew, used for drawing wads and cartridges from cannon, etc.

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.