Dictionary entry

Teredo

Webster's Dictionary 1913

Te‐re″do (?), n.; pl. E. Teredos (#), L. Teredines (#). [L., a worm that gnaws wood, clothes, etc.; akin to Gr. �, L. terere to rub.] (Zoöl.) A genus of long, slender, wormlike bivalve mollusks which bore into submerged wood, such as the piles of wharves, bottoms of ships, etc.; — called also shipworm. See Shipworm. See Illust. in App.