louse
/laʊs/
louse noun: a small parasitic wingless insect of the order Psocodea. Also the obsolete form of loose.
Noun
louse (plural lice or (nonstandard unless used as a term of abuse) louses)
- A small parasitic wingless insect of the order Psocodea.
- Synonyms:
- arithmetic bug, cootie, leaping dandruff
- A contemptible person; one who is deceitful or causes harm.
- 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
- 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)
- The currency sign ¤.
Verb
louse (third-person singular simple present louses, present participle lousing, simple past and past participle loused)
- To 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
- 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
Also used as
louse is also the obsolete form of loose.
louse meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
louse in Hindi
- an insect of the order Psocodea
- जूँ jū̃
louse in Tamil
- an insect of the order Psocodea
- பேன் pēṉ
- worthless person
- தெண்டம் teṇṭam, தண்டம் taṇṭam
louse in Marathi
- an insect of the order Psocodea
- ऊ ū
louse in Urdu
- an insect of the order Psocodea
- جوں jū̃
More languagesFewer languages
- louse in Bengali
- উকুন ukun
- louse in Telugu
- పేను pēnu, పనికిమాలిన వ్యక్తి panikimālina vyakti
- louse in Malayalam
- പേൻ pēṉ
- louse in Kannada
- ಹೇನು hēnu
- louse in Punjabi
- ਜੂੰ jū̃
- louse in Odia
- ଉକୁଣି ukuṇi
- louse in Sanskrit
- यूका yūkā
- louse in Assamese
- ওকণি ükoni
- louse in Pashto
- سپږه spᶕźa
- louse in Tagalog
- kuto
- louse in Arabic
- قَمْلَة qamla, قَمْل qaml, قِمْلَة qimla
- louse in Malay
- kutu
- louse in Indonesian
- kutu
- louse in Persian
- شِپِش šepeš
- louse in Thai
- เหา hǎo, โลน loon
- louse in Vietnamese
- rận, chí, chấy
- louse in Myanmar
- သန်း san:
Examples of louse in a sentence
- […] 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:
- You're the worst louse I have met in a long time.1983 December 17, “GDMFSOB (personal advertisement)”, in Gay Community News, volume 11, number 22, page 17:
Synonyms of louse
Forms of louse
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | lice |
| plural | louses |
| plural error-unknown-tag (nonstandard) | louses |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | louses |
| present participle | lousing |
| past participle | loused |
| past | loused |
Origin of louse
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).
Words formed from louse
- bark louse
- bee louse
- body louse
- booklouse
- carp louse
- chewing louse
- chicken louse
- clover louse
- crab louse
- fish louse
- fishlouse
- flea-louse
- grape-louse
- green louse
- head louse
- headlouse
- hen louse
- jumping plant louse
- lazy louse
- leaf louse
- lens louse
- louse around
- louseborne
- louse fly
- louseless
- louselike
- louseling
- louser
- louse-ridden
- louse trap
- louse up
- lousewort
- lousicide
- lousy
- pea louse
- plant louse
- pricklouse
- pubic louse
- sea louse
- sheep louse
- sucking louse
- sugar louse
- three skips of a louse
- water louse
- whale louse
- woodlouse
Phrases with louse
Words that rhyme with louse
Questions about louse
- What does louse mean?
- Louse means a small parasitic wingless insect of the order Psocodea.
- What is louse in Hindi?
- Louse in Hindi is जूँ (jū̃). See Louse meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use louse in a sentence?
- […] 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.
- What part of speech is louse?
- Louse can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce louse?
- Louse is pronounced /laʊs/ (UK).
- What is the plural of louse?
- The plural of louse is lice.
Words near louse in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: louse (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Back ache-louse.wav.
Cite this entry: “louse.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/louse. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.