1 definition by fredstone
To pretend to agree with a point of view, or to have someone else's interests at heart, while in fact secretly subverting that point of view or acting against the person's best interest. The critical part of the definition is the stealth method of attack: constantly deflecting the thinking process of the person with whom the Wormtongue is supposed to be in agreement with just enough that the person never acts or when they do act, it is ineffective.
For example, the wormtongue pretends to have the safety of the person or the common sense point of view as a priority by exaggerating the dangers of the best action and thus disuading the person from taking that action. This in fact harms the person.
Another example, the wormtongue persuades the 'friend' that doing an activity (asking a person out on a date, trying out for a new activity, etc.) won't work, will cause problems, is actually a bad choice, etc. when the wormtongue really wants the 'friend' to not succeed. This is done for a variety of reasons but they all involve some sort of hypocritical gain on the part of the wormtongue.
On the web, a lot of chatrooms and blogs have wormtongues that appear to be on one side of an issue or else neutral but in reality are very biased and working for the other side. This is especially true in the case of religious or political issues such as global warming, Bush v. Obama, etc.
Another example, the wormtongue persuades the 'friend' that doing an activity (asking a person out on a date, trying out for a new activity, etc.) won't work, will cause problems, is actually a bad choice, etc. when the wormtongue really wants the 'friend' to not succeed. This is done for a variety of reasons but they all involve some sort of hypocritical gain on the part of the wormtongue.
On the web, a lot of chatrooms and blogs have wormtongues that appear to be on one side of an issue or else neutral but in reality are very biased and working for the other side. This is especially true in the case of religious or political issues such as global warming, Bush v. Obama, etc.
by fredstone May 1, 2013