chigger

plural chiggers

1. A chigoe (Tunga penetrans), a kind of flea found in tropical climates.
2. A harvest mite (Trombiculidae spp.), a very small, red mite endemic to the Midwestern and Southeastern US, the infestation of which causes intense itching.

   After we had been out about four days the entire army was attacked by ‘chiggers’. They are tiny insects, millions of them, who have made their home on the Kansas prairie.

   1933, Frank Clune, Try Anything Once, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 68

   1 more example

   Dr. Lareau, an emergency medicine physician at Carilion Franklin Memorial Hospital in Virginia, had seen these marks once or twice before on patients. She knew what had caused them. They were from chiggers, a species of tiny, reddish-brown mites able to leave bites that remain itchy for days or weeks.

   2024 July 25, Carly Stern, “It’s Chigger Season. Here’s What to Know About the Pests.”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

   Synonyms: harvest mite

plural chiggers · alternative chigga

1. USderogatoryethnicoffensiveslangslurAn East Asian person who behaves in ways similar to a stereotypical urban African American.

   —He's not black, Stacia Jacobs who smelled like pee said. — He's yellow and black. He's a chigger. Do you know what a chigger is? It's a chink and a nigger.

   2007, James Boice, MVP: A Novel, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 37