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# maggot

noun (a maggot, maggots)

«maggot» in the English dictionary: everyday and in Jewish tradition — its meanings, how the lessons use it, and examples, each with its tree on Mova.

## 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 →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/maggot/#m1)
2. (old-fashioned, insult) A rude name for a worthless person. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/maggot/#m2)

### 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 →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/maggot/#x1)
- A maggot turns into a pupa and then into a fly. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/maggot/#x2)
- Grandad uses maggots as bait when he goes fishing. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/maggot/#x3)
- Maggots help break down dead animals. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/maggot/#x4)
- Doctors sometimes use special clean maggots to clean wounds. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/maggot/#x5)
- We learnt about the life cycle of a fly: egg, maggot, pupa, fly. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/maggot/#x6)
- The old apple had a maggot inside. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/maggot/#x7)
- The peasants knocked them down and flung them into the fire, not allowing so much as a single maggot to creep away! [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/maggot/#x8)

### 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 →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/judaism/M/maggot/#x1)
- 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 →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/judaism/M/maggot/#x2)

### 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.

## On Mova

- [Trees and pragmatics of «maggot» in the school dictionary](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/maggot/): every meaning and example parsed by Mova, with its dependency tree and frames.
- [«maggot» in the school dictionary](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/dictionaries/school/w/maggot.html) on Mova free.
- [Trees and pragmatics of «maggot» in the Judaism dictionary](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/judaism/M/maggot/): every meaning and example parsed by Mova, with its dependency tree and frames.
- [«maggot» in the Judaism dictionary](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/dictionaries/judaism/w/maggot.html) on Mova free.