cootie
1 Americannoun
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cooties
plural
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a louse, especially one affecting humans, as the body louse, head louse, or pubic louse.
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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
Given the thankless task of watching over troops on leave, rounding up stragglers during battle, the Military Police got in the soldiers' hair as incessantly as the cootie.
From Time Magazine Archive
The so-called cootie garages, which Anne and Ernestine now detested, had been the style several years before, and still were worn by girls who hadn’t bobbed their hair.
From "Cheaper by the Dozen" by Frank B. Gilbreth Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey
It sounds comical now, but my classmates took cooties seriously.
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
But Jonah was in seventh grade now, and seventh graders didn’t talk about cooties.
From "Found" by Margaret Peterson Haddix
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