blindworm

[ blahynd-wurm ]

/ ˈblaɪndˌwɜrm /

a limbless European lizard, Anguis fragilis, related to the glass lizards.

a caecilian, Ichthyophis glutinosus, of Sri Lanka, that coils around its eggs.

Origin of blindworm

1425–75; late Middle English; see blind, worm; so called because the eyes are very small

I occasionally saw a snake, but always of the harmless, blindworm variety.

Jethou |E. R. Suffling
The blindworm then, is Saurophidian; it is quite as much a lizard as a snake.

Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Volume 2, No. 12, May, 1851. |Various
But the blindworm, or slowworm, as this creature is called, is perfectly harmless.

The Animal World, A Book of Natural History |Theodore Wood
It is because she dares not go to sleep on account of the Blindworm, who is waiting to catch her with her eyes closed.

The Curious Book of Birds |Abbie Farwell Brown

And the Blindworm was not sad like the others, neither seemed he to care in the least about the Nightingale's music.

The Curious Book of Birds |Abbie Farwell Brown

blindworm

/ (ˈblaɪndˌwɜːm) /

another name for slowworm