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Webster 1913 Edition
Gordius
‖
Gor′di-us
,Noun.
[NL. See
Gordian
, 1.] (Zool.)
A genus of long, slender, nematoid worms, parasitic in insects until near maturity, when they leave the insect, and live in water, in which they deposit their eggs; – called also
hair eel
, hairworm
, and hair snake
, from the absurd, but common and widely diffused, notion that they are metamorphosed horsehairs.