delouse

D2E1L1O1U1S1E1

verb

To remove lice from.

“A veterinarian could delouse your dog.”

OriginEnglish louse ← Middle English lous ← Old English lūs →
Scrabble 8
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Meanings

verbdelouse (third-person singular simple present delouses, present participle delousing, simple past and past participle deloused)

present singular third person delouses · participle present delousing · participle past deloused · past deloused

  1. To remove lice from.

    A veterinarian could delouse your dog.

  2. To apply insecticides or insect repellents to, in order to be sure that no lice or other parasites are present.

    During the Korean Conflict, American soldiers were deloused with DDT upon entering basic training.

  3. transitivecomputingTo remove malicious software, such as viruses, trojans, spyware, or worms, from.

    A deloused computer may still be considered no longer trustworthy.

Synonyms & antonyms

Also see
debug

Origin

  1. Proto-Indo-European*de
  2. Proto-Indo-European*déh₁
  3. Proto-Italic*dē
  4. Latindē
  5. Latindē-
  6. Englishde-
  7. Proto-Indo-European*lewH-?
  8. Proto-Germanic*lūs
  9. Proto-West Germanic*lūs
  10. Old Englishlūs
  11. Middle Englishlous
  12. Englishlouse
  13. Englishdelouse

From de- + louse.

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Catalan espollar, esplugar
  • espollarto remove lice from
  • esplugarto remove lice from
Chinese Mandarin 驅除蝨子 /驱除虱子
  • 驅除蝨子 /驱除虱子 (qūchú shīzi)to remove lice from
Dutch ontluizen
  • ontluizento remove lice from
Finnish poistaa täit, puhdistaa täistä
  • poistaa täitto remove lice from
  • puhdistaa täistäto remove lice from
French épouiller
  • épouillerto remove lice from
German entlausen
  • entlausento remove lice from
Italian spidocchiare
  • spidocchiareto remove lice from
Latin pediculo
  • pediculoto remove lice from
Norwegian Bokmål avluse
  • avluseto remove lice from
Portuguese despiolhar, espiolhar
  • despiolharto remove lice from
  • espiolharto remove lice from
Romanian despăduchea, păduchea
  • despăducheato remove lice from
  • păducheato remove lice from
Russian вычёсывать вшей
  • вычёсывать вшей (vyčósyvatʹ všej)to remove lice from
Spanish despiojar, espulgar
  • despiojarto remove lice from
  • espulgarto remove lice from
Tagalog hinguthan, hingutuhan
  • hinguthanto remove lice from
  • hingutuhanto remove lice from
Tamil பேன்பார்
  • பேன்பார் (pēṉpār)to remove lice from
Welsh dileuo, dihaeddu
  • dileuoto remove lice from
  • dihaedduto remove lice from
Cite this entry
APA

delouse. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/delouse

MLA

“delouse.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/delouse. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “delouse,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/delouse.

Source: delouse on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.