[ noun ] legendary king of ancient Phrygia who was said to be responsible for the Gordian knot <noun.person>
Gordius \Gor"di*us\, n. [NL. See {Gordian}, 1.] (Zo["o]l.) A genus of long, slender, nematoid worms, parasitic in insects until near maturity, when they leave the insect, and live in water, in which they deposit their eggs; -- called also {hair eel}, {hairworm}, and {hair snake}, from the absurd, but common and widely diffused, notion that they are metamorphosed horsehairs.
According to the legend, Midas, son of King Gordius, was a spendthrift who begged the gods for the power to turn anything he touched to gold.