potato worm
- noun
- /pəˈteɪtoʊ wɜrm/
- Specialized
:
gusano de la papa
- The farmer found a potato worm eating leaves in his tomato patch.
Examples
-
Gardeners often struggle to control the damage done by potato worms each summer.
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A single potato worm can destroy multiple leaves before being noticed.
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The potato worm can cause significant damage to crops.
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Farmers often find potato worms in their fields.
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The gardener was alarmed to see a potato worm munching on the leaves of his prized tomato plants.
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To protect his crop, the farmer applied pesticide after discovering several potato worms in the field.
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A potato worm crawled quietly among the green foliage, feeding on the tender leaves of the potato plants.
Synonyms
1
7.9
A large green caterpillar with a horn at its tail that eats tomato plants
1
8.5
A large green caterpillar with white stripes that eats tomato and potato plants
A large green caterpillar with white stripes that eats tomato and tobacco plants
A large green caterpillar with white stripes that eats tobacco and similar plants
Surface Forms
Morphology
potato + worm
The compound is compositionally interpretable as 'a worm associated with potatoes' so a B1 learner who knows 'potato' and 'worm' can infer it refers to a pest or larval creature that affects potato plants. Noun+noun compounds naming animals or crop pests are cross-linguistically common, making the meaning transparent even if entomologically it denotes a moth larva rather than a true worm.
Etymology
Potato worm comes from the simple image of a green, striped caterpillar eating potato leaves. Because the name joins potato (the plant it eats) and worm (the caterpillar), it now means 'a large caterpillar that feeds on potato and tomato plants'.