Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Pricklouse
Prick′louseˊ
,Noun.
A tailor; – so called in contempt.
[Old slang]
L’Estrange.
Webster 1828 Edition
Pricklouse
PRICK'LOUSE
,Noun.
Definition 2024
pricklouse
pricklouse
English
Noun
pricklouse (plural pricklice)
- (pejorative, now archaic, historical) A tailor; a lousy person.
- 1603, John Florio, translating Michel de Montaigne, Essayes, London: Edward Blount, OCLC 946730821, II.32:
- that woman […] by no threats or stripes would leave to call her husband pricke-lowse [transl. 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 […].
- 1603, John Florio, translating Michel de Montaigne, Essayes, London: Edward Blount, OCLC 946730821, II.32: