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
But to millions of Germans today as to other millions in many of history's wars, the cootie means horror and death in the form of typhus.
From Time Magazine Archive
But the weirdest innovation of all is the "combat cootie."
From Time Magazine Archive
“He shouldn’t have called me no farm boy. If he calls me a farm boy, I’m gonna call him a cootie again.”
From "Fallen Angels" by Walter Dean Myers
Getting branded with cooties by those with the power to brand made you an outcast.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 10, 2026
They walked past me as if I had cooties, or stared with disdain from inside the restaurant like I was a chupacabra.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 6, 2024
Tucker either isn’t one to let an international viral scare spoil any party she’s throwing, or she figured her product has enough proof to kill any Coronavirus cooties.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 6, 2020
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
But Jonah was in seventh grade now, and seventh graders didn’t talk about cooties.
From "Found" by Margaret Peterson Haddix
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.
