louse
part of speech
noun (a louse, lice; a louse, louses — slang meaning); verb (louse up — informal)
meaning for a pupil
1) A tiny insect without wings that lives on the skin or hair of people or animals and feeds on blood; plural «lice». tree →
2) (slang, rude) A nasty, mean person; plural «louses». tree →
3) (louse up, informal) To spoil or mess something up. tree →
sense in the lessons
In health and school life, head lice spread easily between children; parents comb hair with a special nit comb and use treatment, and it is not a sign of being dirty. In science, lice are parasites. In old stories and slang, calling someone a louse is an insult. Phrases: head lice, nit comb, louse up.
examples
- There's a note from school saying a child in our class has head lice. tree →
- A louse is a tiny insect that lives in hair. tree →
- Mum combed my hair to get rid of the lice. tree →
- Lice are parasites that feed on blood. tree →
- «You louse! You stole my sweets!» tree →
- Don't louse up the plan by being late. tree →
- In history, soldiers in the trenches suffered from lice. tree →
note
Irregular plural: one louse, two lice (like mouse/mice). For the insult, the plural is «louses». Nits are lice eggs. Myth: head lice like clean hair as much as dirty hair; anyone can get them. Adjective: lousy (very bad, informal).
In the corpora
- Hooke's book Micrographia amazed readers with huge drawings of fleas and lice.
- A fine comb gets head lice out, and clean hair gets lice just as easily as dirty hair.
- Head lice are common in schools, are not caused by being dirty, and spread from head to head until they are treated.
- Shared helmets, gloves and hats can pass on germs and head lice, so they are cleaned between users.
- Shared helmets and gloves are cleaned between users, because shared gear can spread germs and head lice.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «louse» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.