Word.ws English Dictionary

pricklouse

UK/ˈpɹɪklaʊs/

pricklouse noun: a tailor.

Noun

pricklouse (plural pricklice)

  1. (archaic, derogatory) A tailor.
    • When she was under Water, and could call him Pricklouse no longer with her Lips, she held up her Hands over her Head1692, Roger L’Estrange, “ (please specify the fable number.) (please specify the name of the fable.)”, in Fables, of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists: […], London: […] R[ichard] Sare, […], →OCLC
  2. (archaic, derogatory) A lousy person.
    • that woman […] by no threats or stripes would leave to call her husband pricke-lowse [translating pouilleux], and being cast into a pond and duckt under water, lifted up her hands, and joyning her two thumbs-nailes in act to kill lice above her head, seemed to call him lousie still […]., II.32

Forms of pricklouse

pluralpricklice

Origin of pricklouse

From prick + louse.

Questions about pricklouse

What does pricklouse mean?
Pricklouse means a tailor.
What part of speech is pricklouse?
Pricklouse is a noun.
How do you pronounce pricklouse?
Pricklouse is pronounced /ˈpɹɪklaʊs/ (UK).
What is the plural of pricklouse?
The plural of pricklouse is pricklice.

Words near pricklouse in the dictionary

  1. prickliness
  2. pricklinesses
  3. prickling
  4. pricklingly
  5. pricklings
  6. pricklouse
  7. prickly
  8. prickly ash
  9. prickly ashes
  10. prickly chaff flower
  11. prickly hakea

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pricklouse (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.

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Cite this entry: “pricklouse.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/pricklouse. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.