noun
louse
lows
noun
1
A tiny wingless insect that lives as a parasite on the skin or hair of animals and people.
"The school sent a note home warning parents to check for lice."
2
An informal, insulting term for a despicable or deceitful person.
"He called his ex-business partner a lying louse."
verb
1
To search for and remove lice from someone or something.
"The mother monkey loused her baby carefully."
How to Use Louse
Learner’s notesIn plain EnglishEither the parasitic insect (plural "lice") or, informally, a nasty person.
Common mistake
The phrasal verb "louse up" (to ruin something) is unrelated in meaning to the insect sense — it just means to mess up.
Common pairings
head lice
louse up
a real louse
Word Forms
loused past tense, lice plural, louses plural, louses singular
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He called his ex-business partner a lying _____.
Etymology
From Old English lus, an ancient Germanic word for the insect, going back to Proto-Indo-European roots shared across many European languages.