Bookworm

a name given to the grub of any one of several different beetles. A common bookworm of wide distribution is the grub of a beetle closely allied to the cinnamon-brown death-watch family, including the apple twig borer and the cigarette beetle. Bookworms are especially fond of old leather bindings, which they riddle with holes. A proverbial "bookworm" is a person who "always has his nose in a book," to the presumable extinction of all ability in so-called practical directions. See Paper; Printing; Periodical