Louse

English

Noun

Louse (plural lice or (nonstandard) louses)

1. A small parasitic wingless insect of the order Phthiraptera.
2. (colloquial, dated, not usually used in plural form) A contemptible person; one who has recently taken an action considered deceitful or indirectly harmful.

Synonyms

• (insect): (North America) cootie
• (contemptible person): maggot, worm

Derived terms

• body louse
• booklouse
• crab louse
• head louse
• louser
• lousy
• pubic louse
• sea louse
• three skips of a louse

Verb

Louse (third-person singular simple present louses, present participle lousing, simple past and past participle loused)

1. To remove lice from the body of a person or animal; to delouse.

Synonyms

• delouse

Thesaurus

SOB, bastard, bugger, cat flea, chigoe, cockroach, crab, creep, cur, dog, dog flea, fart, flea, grayback, heel, hood, hooligan, jerk, jigger, meanie, mite, mother, nit, parasite, pill, rat, red bug, roach, sand flea, shit, shithead, shitheel, skunk, snake, stinkard, stinker, toad, turd, vermin, weevil, wretch

Etymology

From Middle English lows(e), from Old English lūs, from Proto-Germanic *lūs (cf. West Frisian lûs, Dutch luis, German Laus), from Proto-Indo-European *lus (cf. Welsh llau ‘lice’, Tocharian luwa, Russian вошь (voš’), Persian rišk, Sanskrit yūkā).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA: /laʊs/, SAMPA: /laUs/
• Rhymes: -aʊs

Translations

Noun

insect

Albanian: morr (sq) Amuzgo: kítzkò Arabic: قَمْلَةٌ (ar) (qámla) f., (collective) قَمْلٌ (ar) (qaml) m. Egyptian: (ʔamla) Armenian: ոջիլ (hy) (voǰil) Aymara: lapʼa (ay) Azeri: bit (az) Basque: zorri (eu) Belarusian: вош (be) (voš) f. Bosnian: uš (bs) f., vaš (bs) f., vaška (bs) f. Bulgarian: въшка (bg) (vəška) f. Catalan: poll m. Chamicuro: nijpa Chinese: Mandarin: 虱子 (zh) (shīzi) Croatian: uš (hr) f. Czech: veš (cs) f. Danish: lus (da) c. Dutch: luis (nl) f. Dyirbal: bayi marbu (Guwal); bayi dimaniny (Jalnguy) Esperanto: pediko Faroese: lús (fo) Fijian: kutu Finnish: täi (fi) French: pou (fr) m. Georgian: მკბენარი (ka) (mkbenari), ტილი (ka) (tili) German: Laus (de) f. Greek: ψείρα (el) (pseíra) f. Hawaiian: ʻuku Hebrew: כינה (he) (kinah) f. Hindi: जूँ (hi) (jū̃) f. Hungarian: tetű (hu) Icelandic: lús (is) f. Ilocano: kuto Indonesian: kutu (id) Acehnese: gutee Buginese: utu Javanese: tuma  (jv) Madurese: koto Italian: pidocchio (it) m. Japanese: 虱 (ja) (しらみ, shirami), シラミ (ja) (shirami), 寄生虫 (ja) (きせいちゅう, kiseichū) Kannada: ಹೇನು (kn) (hēnu) Kazakh: бит (kk)

Khmer: ចៃ (km) (cay) Korean: 이 (ko) (i) Kurdish: Kurmanji: spih (ku) Sorani: espê (ku) Zazaki: espije (ku) Kyrgyz: бит (ky) Lakota: hitka la Latin: pediculus (la) m. Latvian: uts (lv) f. Lithuanian: utėlė (lt) f. Macedonian: вошка (mk) (vóška) f. Maori: kutu (mi) Navajo: yaaʼ Norwegian: lus (no) c. Ojibwe: ikwa, ikwag pl. Persian: شِپِش (fa) (šepeš) Polish: wesz (pl) f. Portuguese: piolho (pt) m. Romanian: păduche (ro) m. Russian: вошь (ru) (voš’) f., plural: вши (ru) (vši) f., вошка (ru) (vóška) f. Scottish Gaelic: mial f. Serbian: Cyrillic: ваш f., уш f. Roman: vaš f., uš f. Slovak: voš (sk) f., plural: vši (sk) f. pl. Slovene: uš (sl) f. Spanish: piojo (es) m. Swahili: chawa sg/pl (noun 9/10) Swedish: lus (sv) c. Tagalog: kuto Taos: phìayána Telugu: పేను (te) (pEnu) Thai: เหา (th) (háo), โลน (th) (lohn) Tibetan: ཤིག (shig) Tok Pisin: laus Turkish: bit (tr) Turkmen: bit (tk) Ukrainian: воша (uk) (vóša) f. Urdu: جوں (ur) (jū̃) f. Uyghur: پىت (ug) Vietnamese: con rận (vi) Warlpiri: yaka !Xóõ: (large) ʘnó̰õ, (small) gǁkxʼóni

worthless person

Albanian: qelbanik Arabic: سَافِلٌ اِبْنُ كَلْب (sáafil íbnu kalb) m. Bulgarian: гад (gad) m. and f. Dutch: (arme) luis m. Finnish: luopio (fi), hylkiö (fi), epatto (fi) French: salaud (fr) m. German: Dreckskerl m. Greek: κοπρόσκυλον (kopróskylon) n., ασυνείδητος (asyneíðitos) m. Macedonian: гнида (mk) (gnída) f., вошкар (mk) (vóškar) m., гад (mk) (gad) m. Polish: gnida (pl) f., menda (pl) f.

Portuguese: piolho m., sem-vergonha m. and f., canalha m. and f. Romanian: păduche (ro) m. Russian: гнида (gnída) m. and f., гад (gad) m. and f., гадская кровь (gádskaja krov') m. and f. Slovak: všivák m., všivavec m. Slovene: ušivec m., gnida f. (highly pejorative) Spanish: sinvergüenza (es) m. and f., canalla (es) m. and f. Swahili: chawa (sw) Telugu: పనికిమాలిన వ్యక్తి (panikimaalina vyakti) Thai: คนเส็งเคร็ง (khohn séng khreng) Turkish: aşağılık kimse

Verb

To remove lice

Arabic: قملة (ar) (qimla) f.

Anagrams

• loues, oules, ousel, Seoul, soule