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Glite Dictionary
🪱 Soil from worms 🦴 Worm trail fossil
wormcast

wormcast

9.5
A small tube of soil left by an earthworm on the ground
  • noun
  • /ˈwɜrmˌkæst/
  • UK
: vermicompost
  • After the rain, the garden was dotted with fresh wormcasts on the lawn.

Examples

  • The presence of wormcasts indicates healthy soil full of earthworm activity.

  • Fishermen often look for wormcasts on the beach to find bait.

  • I found a wormcast in my garden this morning.

  • The wormcasts were scattered across the sandy beach.

  • After the rain, the garden was dotted with fresh wormcasts on the lawn.

  • The presence of wormcasts indicates healthy soil full of earthworm activity.

  • I found a wormcast in my garden this morning.

Surface Forms

wormcast singular
wormcasts plural

Morphology

wormcast = worm + cast (semi-transparent) = worm + cast

The components 'worm' and 'cast' are evident, but the noun sense of 'cast' meaning a mass of soil or excrement ejected by a worm is a specialized usage that some learners may not know.

Etymology

The word wormcast is a simple compound of worm and cast, where cast means 'to throw' or 'something thrown out'. So a wormcast is the small pile of soil a worm has 'thrown out', which gardeners often see on the surface after rain.