muckworm

noun

1. A larva living in mud or manure.
2. Someone who gathers wealth through overwork of employees and sordid means; a miser.

   “Here you a muckworm of the town might see, / At his dull desk, amid his legers stall'd, / Eat up with carking care and penurie; / Most like to carcase parch'd on gallows-tree.”

   “We have painted one Money-Lender — not the mere sordid muckworm of a century ago, but the man-eater of the present day.”

   “Perhaps it is far too expensive for a notorious muckworm like you! I, however, am more generous.”