louse

plural lice · error unknown tag nonstandard plural louses

1. A small parasitic wingless insect of the order Psocodea.

   Synonyms: arithmetic bug, cootie, leaping dandruff

2. colloquialdatedA contemptible person; one who is deceitful or causes harm.

   It's then that those louses go back to their spouses. Diamonds are a girl's best friend.

   1949, Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend (song)

   3 more examples

   He said: "Thanks, friend; but you're wasting your time. You better warn Crocker. If that louse makes a play for me, he'll get hit with Chicago lightning!"

   1946, Joseph Thompson Shaw, The hard-boiled omnibus: early stories from Black Mask, page 388

   […] as she raised her guitar for the last loud chord, an unseen louse let loose a rubber-tipped arrow that landed right on her dark-skinned forehead.

   1965 December, Phil Ochs, “That Was The Year That Weren't”, in Cavalier

   After you get finished betraying all your friends, how long do you think it will be before you're all alone? You will age and die all alone. You are attractive but unloving and unlovable. You're the worst louse I have met in a long time. I hope you get what you deserve.

   1983 December 17, “GDMFSOB (personal advertisement)”, in Gay Community News, volume 11, number 22, page 17

   Synonyms: maggot, worm

3. slangcomputingThe currency sign ¤.

present singular third person louses · participle present lousing · participle past loused · past loused

1. transitiveTo remove lice from; to delouse.

   ‘Nor have I combed, washed or loused myself this six months past, there being so few daring deeds to do on this Highway.’

   1936, Norman Lindsay, The Flyaway Highway, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 54

   1 more example

   There were a few wire-netted enclosures to keep young chickens from the hawks, but the fowls wandered at large, coming about the hut to ruffle their feathers in the dust, and louse themselves, and pick up scraps.

   1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 108

present singular third person louses · participle present lousing · participle past loused · past loused

1. obsoleteObsolete form of loose.

   To ſome it louſeth the belly verie freelie, but not at the firſt. Others thinks it bindeth them. Yet it ſeemeth to louſe moe then it bindeth.

   1618, Patri[c]k Anderson, The Colde Spring of Kinghorne Craig […], Edinburgh: Thomas Finlason, unnumbered page

plural louses

1. obsoleteObsolete form of loose.