louse

CEFRB2

/laʊs/

noun · verb

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    A very small insect that lives on people or animals.

  2. 02

    noun

    Extra detail

    A contemptible person; one who is deceitful or causes harm.

Examples

  • I'm fascinated by the evolutionary history of the louse.

  • The plural form of "louse" is "lice".

At a glance

Sits at B2 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
2
Citations
5
Synonyms
5

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

  1. The currency sign ¤.

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

verb

Extra meaning

  1. To remove lice from; to delouse.

More examples

In context

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

  • […] 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.

  • 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!"

Synonyms

Quick test

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Nearby

Origin

noun

From Middle English lous, lows, lowse, from Old English lūs, from Proto-West Germanic *lūs, from Proto-Germanic *lūs, from Proto-Indo-European *lewH-. Cognate with West Frisian lûs, Dutch luis, German Low German Luus, German Laus, Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish lus, Faroese and Icelandic lús; also Welsh llau (“lice”), Tocharian B luwo, maybe Sanskrit यूका (yūkā).