maggot

Everyday

1. The soft, pale, legless young form (larva) of a fly, which hatches from an egg and feeds on rotting food or dead animals. tree →
2. (old-fashioned, insult) A rude name for a worthless person. tree →

In the lessons

In science lessons maggots are part of a fly's life cycle: egg, larva (maggot), pupa, adult fly. They clean up nature by eating rotting things. Anglers use them as bait; doctors sometimes use clean maggots to clean wounds. Phrases: «crawling with maggots».

Examples

• The rubbish bin was crawling with maggots in the hot weather. tree →
• A maggot turns into a pupa and then into a fly. tree →
• Grandad uses maggots as bait when he goes fishing. tree →
• Maggots help break down dead animals. tree →
• Doctors sometimes use special clean maggots to clean wounds. tree →
• We learnt about the life cycle of a fly: egg, maggot, pupa, fly. tree →
• The old apple had a maggot inside. tree →
• The peasants knocked them down and flung them into the fire, not allowing so much as a single maggot to creep away! tree →

Note

Countable; plural «maggots». A maggot is a larva, not a worm — a common mistake. Caterpillars are the larvae of butterflies and moths; maggots are the larvae of flies.

In Jewish tradition

Here it means the larva of a fly that feeds on dead bodies. It stands for how small and lowly human beings are, and for the decay that follows death.

Interpretation. Job's friend uses the maggot to say that no person can be pure before God. Isaiah uses it to show that a proud king's glory ends in the grave.

Examples

• How much less man, that is a worm! and the son of man, that is a maggot! (Writings JOB.25.6, JPS 1917) tree →
• Thy pomp is brought down to the nether-world, and the noise of thy psalteries; the maggot is spread under thee, and the worms cover thee.' (Prophets ISA.14.11, JPS 1917) tree →

Note

Countable; plural «maggots». A maggot is a larva, not a worm — a common mistake. Caterpillars are the larvae of butterflies and moths; maggots are the larvae of flies.