LOUSY
What does "LOUSY" mean?
Very poor in quality; or, originally, infested with lice.
Meanings
- Of very bad quality; terrible. We got lousy weather the whole vacation. informal
- Feeling ill or unwell. I've felt lousy ever since I caught that cold. informal
- Abundantly supplied (often 'lousy with'). The beach town is lousy with tourists in August. informal
- Infested with lice. The crowded ship's quarters were filthy and lousy. archaic
Did you know?
- When you call a meal 'lousy', you're literally calling it lice-ridden - the word started as 'infested with lice' before drifting into a general word for 'awful'.
Word origin
From 'louse' plus '-y', literally 'infested with lice'; the figurative sense of 'contemptible, bad' developed by extension, becoming the dominant modern meaning.
Remember it
LOUSY = full of LOUSE; something lousy is so bad it's crawling with problems.
A little poem
The word for crawling vermin learned to mean
a lousy day, a film, a bad cuisine.
couplet
Wordplay
- The bug exterminator called his own work lousy - and for once, he meant it as a compliment to himself.
What it teaches
Insults age into idioms; today's metaphor was yesterday's literal disgust.
Quick facts
What does LOUSY mean?
Very poor in quality; or, originally, infested with lice.
Is LOUSY a valid word?
Yes — LOUSY is one of the answer words in Wordul, the daily word game.
How many letters is LOUSY?
LOUSY has 5 letters and 2 syllables.
Where does LOUSY come from?
From 'louse' plus '-y', literally 'infested with lice'; the figurative sense of 'contemptible, bad' developed by extension, becoming the dominant modern meaning.
What can LOUSY teach us?
Insults age into idioms; today's metaphor was yesterday's literal disgust.
How players do
Be the first to solve it.