Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A genus of Pediculidæ or true lice, having the body broad and flat, and the two hinder pairs of legs very much thickened; the crab-lice (so called from their appearance).

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun true lice: crab lice

Etymologies

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Examples

  • What inducement has a young and beautiful woman to toil early and late for an honest livelihood when by so doing she forfeits the right to be called respectable -- is flouted by even the paltry plutocracy of a country town and proclaimed a social pariah by such a headless phthirius pubis as Halliwell!

    The Complete Works of Brann the Iconoclast, Volume 10 1905

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