Thesaurus results for WORMING

worming

verb

present participle of worm

as in encroaching

to advance gradually beyond the usual or desirable limits neighborhoods worming into lands reserved for wildlife

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

as in sneaking

to introduce in a gradual, secret, or clever way over a period of several years, the undercover agent was able to worm his way into the drug kingpin's confidence

Synonyms & Similar Words

as in creeping

to move slowly with the body close to the ground the cat silently wormed along the ground as it snuck up on the bird

Synonyms & Similar Words

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recent Examples of worming After a series of personal setbacks, Ingrid moves to Los Angeles to be closer to Taylor, masterminding their meeting and worming her way into her inner circle. — Brianna Zigler, Entertainment Weekly, 15 July 2026 The best success comes using it in jungle-thick cover, worming a minnow down between uncooperative branches. — John Phillips, Outdoor Life, 14 May 2026 In terms of the complex set design — which looks like a facsimile of the same passage over and over but with subtle differences worming their way in — Kawamura and his team built two identical corridors for cinematographer Keisuke Imamura to follow the actors through, third- and first-person-style. — Ryan Lattanzio, IndieWire, 15 Apr. 2026 Clara ends up moving to the small town and worming her way into everyone’s hearts. — Literary Hub, 12 Dec. 2025 Traitors is worming its way in there. — Mckinley Franklin, HollywoodReporter, 3 Sep. 2019

Recent Examples of Synonyms for worming

Verb

The Federal Aviation Administration says thunderstorms are encroaching on final approach courses, causing officials to hold arrivals.

— Christa Swanson, CBS News, 15 Aug. 2026
Desperate struggles against the encroaching elements become a brief interlude before the situation unravels into a disaster of a different magnitude.

— Georg Szalai, HollywoodReporter, 30 July 2026

Definition of encroaching

Verb

In addition to dark transits, another tactic for sneaking oil supplies through the strait is ship-to-ship transfers, a practice Iran and Russia have previously used to get their oil tankers past Western sanctions.

— Jason Ma, Fortune, 14 Aug. 2026
The fact that each tally mark was a dollar in the band’s pocket, and that sneaking in was essentially stealing money from them, also didn’t faze us.

— Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 7 Aug. 2026

Definition of sneaking

Verb

But when prices on everything from gas to groceries are steadily creeping upward, sticking to your plans for spending can feel like a losing battle.

— Becca Stanek, TheWeek, 17 Aug. 2026
On Widow’s Bay, a show currently decorated with 19 Emmy nominations, the line between cozy New England charm and creeping dread is often found in the details.

— Destiny Jackson, Deadline, 14 Aug. 2026

Definition of creeping

Verb

Dozens of pages of documents describe agents secretly infiltrating meetings, monitoring activist chat groups and using license plate numbers to compile names of people who attended gatherings.

— ABC News, ABC News, 13 Aug. 2026
Hardware has been a tentacle of my personal style code since, infiltrating every part of my closet, home and life.

— Julissa James, Los Angeles Times, 12 Aug. 2026

Definition of infiltrating

Verb

Nidhi imagined the baby crawling around in her mother’s body, desperately seeking the uterus, and, failing to find it in its proper place, quietly shrivelling up and dying.

— Madhuri Vijay, New Yorker, 16 Aug. 2026
That happened in New York City in 2018, when at least a half dozen city buses were taken out of service after reports of bedbugs crawling on seats.

— ABC News, ABC News, 15 Aug. 2026

Definition of crawling

Verb

Advanced X-ray analysis confirmed that the electrode reliably repeats this two-step storage process, inserting zinc ions first and then adding protons.

— Mrigakshi Dixit, Interesting Engineering, 20 Aug. 2026
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images In late July, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang posted on X for the first time to defend open-source models in artificial intelligence, inserting himself into a debate that was raging across the industry.

— Kif Leswing, CNBC, 11 Aug. 2026

Definition of inserting

Verb

When her foster mom is preparing dinner, Lu sneakily samples from her siblings’ meals, snaking her tongue into each bowl.

— Suhauna Hussain, Los Angeles Times, 18 Aug. 2026
Previously centered on Nashville and central Tennessee, the district now extends to the northwest corner of the state before snaking south along the Mississippi River to Memphis.

— ABC News, ABC News, 6 Aug. 2026

Definition of snaking

Verb

Vaccination rates have been slipping since the 2019–2020 school year, when the US had obtained rates of around 95 percent, the threshold needed to keep outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases from spreading in communities.

— Beth Mole, ArsTechnica, 17 Aug. 2026
By the time a slipping receivable or a bloated inventory line shows up in that review, weeks of cash have already been lost.

— Nick Chandi, Forbes.com, 17 Aug. 2026

Definition of slipping

Browse Nearby Words

wormholes

worming

worms

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Style

“Worming.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/worming. Accessed 23 Aug. 2026.

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Synonyms of worming

verb

Example Sentences

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