’Tis slander,
Whose edge is sharper than the sword; whose tongue
Outvenoms all the worms of Nile.
Shakespeare, Cymbeline, act iii. sc. 4.
O Eve, in evil hour thou didst give ear
To that false worm, of whomsoever taught
To counterfeit man’s voice.
Milton, Paradise Lost, ix. 1067.
Worship. At present we ‘worship’ none but God; there was a time when the word was employed in so much more general a sense that it was not profane to say that God ‘worshipped,’ that is honoured, man. This, of course, is the sense of the word in the Marriage Service, ‘with my body I thee worship.’
If ony man serve me, my fadir schal worschipe hym.—John xii. 26. Wiclif.