1
as in encroaches
to advance gradually beyond the usual or desirable limits
neighborhoods worming into lands reserved for wildlife
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
2
as in infiltrates
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
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of worms
MomTok got Taylor on the plane and off to star in The Bachelorette, but not before Dakota worms his way in one last time.
—
Joe Reid, Vulture, 13 Mar. 2026
Guiteau eventually worms his way into an audience, ostensibly seeking an ambassadorship for his dubious contributions to the campaign but, in reality, requesting a path to greatness.
—Inkoo Kang, New Yorker, 11 Nov. 2025
Joe Reid, Vulture, 13 Mar. 2026
Guiteau eventually worms his way into an audience, ostensibly seeking an ambassadorship for his dubious contributions to the campaign but, in reality, requesting a path to greatness.
—Inkoo Kang, New Yorker, 11 Nov. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for worms
Verb
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Paglen’s ideas, collected between two covers, carve a clean, linear path through our messy neural era, engaging in the kind of big-picture sense-making that books remain well suited to do, even as AI encroaches on this terrain.—
Louis Bury,
ARTnews.com,
1 May 2026
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Meta, Anthropic and Apple all now use TPUs, as Google increasingly encroaches on a market cornered by Nvidia's graphics processing units.—
Katie Tarasov,
CNBC,
20 Apr. 2026
Verb
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Without it, walls can have a knock-on effect that infiltrates the rest of your room.—
Ashley Chalmers,
The Spruce,
7 June 2026
-
Nessa infiltrates Maryam’s life as her nurse, aiming to find the truth.—
Georg Szalai,
HollywoodReporter,
7 May 2026
Verb
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When a Knicks game lets out at the Garden or concertgoers from the Meadowlands pour out of Penn Station, crowds pack the Tick Tock’s orange-and-green banquettes and the line snakes out the door.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
17 June 2026
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The River Caqueta snakes nearly 1,800 miles into the heart of the Amazon rainforest.—
Jacob Whitehead,
New York Times,
27 May 2026
Verb
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Fans are less tame, however, when Mamdani sneaks into the bar through a side entrance with New York City’s First Lady, Rama Duwaji.—
Melanie Anzidei,
New York Times,
26 May 2026
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This bucket crossbody bag satisfies both in a minimalist silhouette, which sneaks in luxurious details like nappa leather trims, protective metal feet, and a secure zipper top closure.—
Olivia Cigliano,
InStyle,
26 May 2026
Verb
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At sunset, the city starts glowing around you while traffic crawls silently below.—
Abby Montanez,
Robb Report,
28 May 2026
-
Critics on the Croisette are starting to resemble that classic comic-strip panel in which an explorer crawls desperately across the sand toward an oasis that’s only a mirage.—
Amy Nicholson,
Los Angeles Times,
19 May 2026
Verb
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Once seated at the computer, the hacker inserts a USB drive or external hard drive.—
Kurt Knutsson,
FOXNews.com,
13 June 2026
-
Encord replicated a real data center server rack, where an operator inserts blue cables into penny-sized sockets all day.—
Los Angeles Times,
Los Angeles Times,
31 May 2026
Verb
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The look of elation that creeps over his face is a perfect encapsulation of everything that long-suffering Knicks fans were feeling when the ad aired.—
Hershal Pandya,
Vulture,
16 June 2026
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Humidity creeps back into the picture on Sunday with highs in the low 90s, increasing clouds and brisk southwest winds ahead of a strong cold front.—
Tammie Souza,
CBS News,
13 June 2026
Verb
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As measurement gets stricter and the watchers get better at catching what slips, the pool of gas that can clear the bar shrinks — and intensity figures shaped by satellite data help decide who is in the pool and who is left holding cargoes nobody in Brussels will touch.—
Dara-Abasi Ita,
Forbes.com,
13 June 2026
-
Yoon’s wife slips a cigarette between her lips, then glances at my wife.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
11 June 2026
Cite this Entry
“Worms.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/worms. Accessed 22 Jun. 2026.
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