flea-ridden

See also: flearidden

English

Alternative forms

• flearidden

Etymology

flea +‎ -ridden

Adjective

flea-ridden (comparative more flea-ridden, superlative most flea-ridden)

1. Infested with fleas.
   • 1861, Edward Dicey, chapter 14, in Rome in 1860‎^[1], London: Macmillan, pages 207–208:

     Two or three times a week a sort of Italian eil-wagen, a funereal and tumble-down, flea-ridden coach, with windows boarded up so high that, when seated, you cannot see out of them, and closed hermetically, after Italian fashion, shambles along at jog-trot pace between the two towns, and takes a livelong day, from early morning to late at night, to perform the journey.

   • 1913, D. K. Broster, G. W. Taylor, The Vision Splendid‎^[2], London: John Murray, Book II, Chapter 15 (1):

     He threw Dormer the paper, stooped to pat the flea-ridden puppy of the hotel, and went in.

   • 2002, Karel Čapek, translated by David Wyllie, The War with the Newts‎^[3], published 1936, Book One, Chapter I:

     “Tell them, then, that if they don't go...I’ll knock all their teeth out...I’ll tear their ears off...I’ll hang the lot of them...and that I'll burn down their entire flea-ridden village. Understand?”

2. Mangy; filthy.

Synonyms

• flea-bitten

Translations

infested with fleas

• French: pouilleux (fr) m, pouilleuse (fr) f
• Italian: pulcioso
• Portuguese: pulguento (pt) m, pulguenta f
• Romanian: puricos (ro)
• Spanish: pulgoso

mangy, filthy

• Italian: pulcioso, sudicio (it)