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definitions

wood louse

noun Zoology.
  1. any of certain small, terrestrial crustaceans of the genera Oniscus, Armadillidium, etc., having a flattened, elliptical body.

Origin of wood louse

First recorded in 1605–15
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for wood louse

Historical Examples of wood louse

  • Nobody that would not stoop to save a wood-louse in his path can claim to love.

    Sylvia & Michael

    Compton Mackenzie

  • "A man who lives like a wood-louse would be sure to look like that," he added.

    Z. Marcas

    Honore de Balzac

  • Why not an earwig, or a black-beetle, or a wood-louse, or a centipede?

  • Finally they came across the wood-louse, whom they found mentioned in the letter as "maid-servant."

    Italian Popular Tales

    Thomas Frederick Crane

  • There was once a wood-louse, who, being dissatisfied with his position, called himself a Pterygobranchiate.

    The Hypocrite

    Cyril Arthur Edward Ranger Gull