n. [ AS. wergild; wer a man, value set on a man's life + gild payment of money; akin to G. wehrgeld. √285. See Were a man, and Geld, n. ] (O. Eng. Law) The price of a man's head; a compensation paid of a man killed, partly to the king for the loss of a subject, partly to the lord of a vassal, and partly to the next of kin. It was paid by the murderer.
n. [ OE. wivel, wevil, AS. wifel, wibil; akin to OD. wevel, OHG. wibil, wibel, G. wiebel, wibel, and probably to Lith. vabalas beetle, and E. weave. See Weave. ] (Zool.) Any one of numerous species of snout beetles, or Rhynchophora, in which the head is elongated and usually curved downward. Many of the species are very injurious to cultivated plants. The larvae of some of the species live in nuts, fruit, and grain by eating out the interior, as the plum weevil, or curculio, the nut weevils, and the grain weevil (see under Plum, Nut, and Grain). The larvae of other species bore under the bark and into the pith of trees and various other plants, as the pine weevils (see under Pine). See also
a. Infested by weevils;
a. Having weevils; weeviled.