earwig in English
- earwig⇄earwig, noun, verb, -wigged,-wigging.
- earwig⇄noun 1. a slender insect somewhat like a beetle, found throughout the world. They have short, leathery forewings and forcepslike appendages at the end of the abdomen. Earwigs were once thought to crawl into people's ears; dermapteran.
2. a kind of - earwig⇄v.t. to try to influence with sly suggestions; whisper insinuations in the ear of, against another.
Ex. Each secretary of state is earwigged by a knot of sturdy beggars (Blackwood's Magazine).