cootie
1 Americannoun
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a louse, especially one affecting humans, as the body louse, head louse, or pubic louse.
-
a child's term for an imaginary germ or disease that one can catch by touching a person who is disliked or socially avoided.
The girls at camp thought the boys had cooties.
noun
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of cootie1
First recorded in 1910–15; of disputed origin; perhaps from Malay kutu “louse” (akin to Chamorro hutu, Hawaiian 'uku, Maori kutu, Tagalog kuto ), with final syllable conformed to -ie; perhaps an elaboration of obsolete coot “louse,” after coot ( def. ) (compare as lousy as a coot “infested with lice”)
Origin of cootie2
First recorded in 1775–85; variant of Scots cood, of uncertain origin
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Many of these are visual: The sorting hat is depicted as an enormous cootie catcher, while butterbeer is represented by beer bottles with Land O’Lakes labels tacked onto them.
From Slate ● May 17, 2018
Lice dancing: Shake, shake, shake, shake your cootie .
From Washington Post ● Nov. 12, 2015
During World War I the cootie was a joke to many people who had never been bitten by one.
From Time Magazine Archive
On the Western Front, thanks to frequent delousing and other precautions, the cootie seldom brought anything worse than a comparatively mild infliction called trench fever.
From Time Magazine Archive
He’d heard the word so often—mostly from Maria—he’d thought it was only a swear word, like dumdum or cootie face.
From "The House of the Scorpion" by Nancy Farmer
Getting branded with cooties by those with the power to brand made you an outcast.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 10, 2026
These longterm friends suddenly act like the other has cooties.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 17, 2025
She gives a high-five to a boy in her class even after it is established among her friends that boys have cooties.
From New York Times ● Nov. 19, 2019
If he is responding with this level of paralysis and panic and terror and “Get your cooties away from me” every couple of months, there are guys out there who are not like that.
From Slate ● Sep. 29, 2017
Every minute or so he’d scratch his head like he had cooties worse than Hosie Roach.
From "Cold Sassy Tree" by Olive Ann Burns
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
