worm
n.— «“Everyone thinks they’re going to go to college, but we’re all back in the oil fields doing what our dads did,” says one rookie, called a “worm” in roughneck parlance. “I was going to do big things and, well, here I am.”» —“Pumping up the drama among oil field workers” by Emma Brown Boston Globe June 18, 2008. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
The words tough, through, and dough all end in O-U-G-H. So why don’t they rhyme? A lively new book addresses the many quirks of English by explaining the history of words and phrases. And: have you ever been in a situation where a group makes...
A librarian opens a book and finds a mysterious invitation scribbled on the back of a business card. Another discovers a child’s letter to the Tooth Fairy, tucked into a book decades ago. What stories are left untold by these forgotten...