arch. [f. TAINT sb. + WORM.] A worm or crawling larva supposed to taint or infect cattle, etc.: cf. TAINT sb. C. 3.
1573. Tusser, Husb. (1878), 150. Doo taint wormes good, that lurke where ox should eat?
1637. Milton, Lycidas, 46. As killing as the Canker to the Rose, Or Taint-worm to the weanling Herds that graze.
1840. Browning, Sordello, VI. 158. Study the corpse-face thro’ the taint-worms’ scurf.
