0 a type of mollusc (= a type of creature that has a soft body, no spine, and is often covered with a shell) that lives in the sea and that can damage wooden structures by making holes in them -- 船蛆
In 1980 an attack of shipworm on the Barmouth viaduct nearly forced the closure of the Cambrian Coast Line.
Why shipworms are suddenly surviving in Maine in places where they haven't before is still an unanswered question.
One of the most notorious for the damage it can cause to unprotected wooden boats and piers is the shipworm, Teredo.
His ships were reduced to sponges by shipworm and eventually scuttled.
Gribbles, shipworms and bacteria decompose the wood and gradually turn it into nutrients that are reintroduced to the food web.
Thus, it was also used to sheathe the piles of piers in tropical seas, as a protection against teredo shipworms, and in locomotive tubes.
The bridge supports had been weakened by the marine mollusc teredo navalis (commonly known as shipworm).
These poles had been eaten by shipworm.