flea : Idioms & Phrases

• an unwelcome hint or unexpected reply, annoying like a flea; an irritating repulse; as, to put a flea in one's ear; to go away with a flea in one's ear.

Webster 1913

• noun small amphipod crustaceans that hop like fleas; common on ocean beaches
  sand hopper; beach flea; sandhopper.
  

WordNet

• (Zoöl.), the common name of many species of amphipod Crustacea, of the family Orchestidæ, living on the sea beaches, and leaping like fleas.

Webster 1913

• etc. See under Beach, etc.

Webster 1913

• (Zoöl.), a flea beetle (Haltica nemorum) injurious to turnips.

Webster 1913

• noun flea that breeds chiefly on cats and dogs and rats
  Ctenocephalides felis.
  

WordNet

• noun small tropical flea; the fertile female burrows under the skin of the host including humans
  Tunga penetrans; chigger; chigoe.
  

WordNet

• noun flea that attacks dogs and cats
  Ctenocephalides canis.
  

WordNet

• (Zoöl.), a species of flea (Pulex canis) which infests dogs and cats, and is often troublesome to man. In America it is the common flea. See Flea, and Aphaniptera.

Webster 1913

• noun any small leaf beetle having enlarged hind legs and capable of jumping
  

WordNet

• noun sting inflicted by a flea
  
• noun a very minor inconvenience
  

WordNet

• noun an open-air street market for inexpensive or secondhand articles
  

WordNet

Flea"-bee`tle noun

Definitions

1. (Zoöl.) A small beetle of the family Halticidæ, of many species. They have strong posterior legs and leap like fleas. The turnip flea-beetle (Phyllotreta vittata) and that of the grapevine (Graptodera chalybea) are common injurious species.

Webster 1913

Flea"-bite` noun

Definitions

1. The bite of a flea, or the red spot caused by the bite.
2. A trifling wound or pain, like that of the bite of a flea. Harvey.

Webster 1913

• adjective satellite worn and broken down by hard use
  run-down; woebegone; creaky; decrepit; derelict.
  
  • a creaky shack
  • a decrepit bus...its seats held together with friction tape
  • a flea-bitten sofa
  • a run-down neighborhood
  • a woebegone old shack

WordNet

Flea"-bit`ten adjective

Definitions

1. Bitten by a flea; as, a flea-bitten face.
2. White, flecked with minute dots of bay or sorrel; -- said of the color of a horse.

Webster 1913

Flea"-louse` noun

Definitions

1. (Zoöl.) A jumping plant louse of the family Psyllidæ, of many species. That of the pear tree is Psylla pyri.

Webster 1913

• (Zoöl.), a small flea beetle (Haltica concinna), very injurious to hops.

Webster 1913

• (Zoöl.), a jumping plant louse of the family Psyllidæ.

Webster 1913

• noun small amphipod crustaceans that hop like fleas; common on ocean beaches
  sand hopper; beach flea; sandhopper.
  

WordNet

• . (Zoöl.) (a) Any species of flea which inhabits, or breeds in, sandy places, especially the common dog flea . (b) the chigoe . (c) Any leaping amphipod crustacean; a beach flea, or orchestian. See Beach flea, under Beach.

Webster 1913

• (Zoöl.), a small black leaping poduran (Achorutes nivicola) often found in winter on the snow in vast numbers.

Webster 1913

• noun parasitic on especially the heads of chickens
  Echidnophaga gallinacea; sticktight.
  

WordNet

• (Zoöl.), a small flea-beetle (Haltica, ∨ Phyllotreta, striolata), which feeds upon the turnip, and often seriously injures it. It is black with a stripe of yellow on each elytron. The name is also applied to several other small insects which are injurious to turnips. See Illust. under Flea-beetle.

Webster 1913

• noun minute free-swimming freshwater copepod having a large median eye and pear-shaped body and long antennae used in swimming; important in some food chains and as intermediate hosts of parasitic worms that affect man e.g. Guinea worms
  cyclops.
  
• noun minute freshwater crustacean having a round body enclosed in a transparent shell; moves about like a flea by means of hairy branched antennae
  daphnia.
  

WordNet

Wa"ter flea`

Definitions

1. (Zoöl.) Any one of numerous species of small aquatic Entomostraca belonging to the genera Cyclops, Daphnia, etc; -- so called because they swim with sudden leaps, or starts.

Webster 1913