lousy

English

Etymology

louse +‎ -y

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -aʊzi

Adjective

lousy (comparative lousier, superlative lousiest)

1. Remarkably bad; of poor quality, dirty, or underhanded; mean, contemptible.
   • No offense, but your cooking is lousy.
2. Infested with lice.
3. (colloquial, usually with with) Filled or packed (with something, usually bad).

   The place was lousy with students.

   She's lousy with credit cards, goes shopping every day!

Usage notes

• Considered an offensive insult prior to World War II, implying filthiness. Now considered a mild or rather dated term.

Translations

remarkably bad; of poor quality, dirty, or underhanded

• Catalan: pèssim (ca), horrible (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 蹩脚 (zh) (biéjiǎo)

• Esperanto: aĉa (eo)
• Estonian: närune, alatu
• Finnish: surkea (fi)
• French: pouilleux (fr), minable (fr), pourri (fr)
• German: lausig (de)

• Hebrew: עלוב‎ (he) ('alúv)
• Italian: schifoso (it)
• Ngazidja Comorian: -a uvunɗo (-a uvundo)
• Portuguese: péssimo (pt) m, horrível (pt)
• Russian: ни́зкий (ru) (nízkij), подлый (ru) (podlyj), отврати́тельный (ru) (otvratítelʹnyj), ме́рзкий (ru) (mérzkij), (colloquial) парши́вый (ru) (paršívyj), (colloquial) фиговый (ru) (figovyj), (colloquial) отстойный (ru) (otstojnyj)
• Serbo-Croatian: ušljiv (sh) m
• Spanish: pésimo (es), malísimo (es), fatal (es)
• Swedish: värdelös (sv), urusel (sv), botten (sv)

Infested with lice

• Aromanian: piducljos
• Catalan: pollós (ca)
• Czech: zavšivený
• French: pouilleux (fr)
• Friulian: pedoglôs
• German: verlaust
• Hungarian: tetves (hu)
• Italian: pidocchioso
• Latvian: utains
• Occitan: pesolhós (oc)

• Polish: zawszony m
• Portuguese: piolhoso, piolhento (pt)
• Romanian: păduchios (ro)
• Russian: вши́вый (ru) (všívyj)
• Sardinian: peugosu, piduciosu
• Serbo-Croatian: ušljiv (sh) m
• Spanish: piojoso (es)
• Swedish: nedlusad, lusig
• Turkish: bitli (tr)

filled with

• French: bourré (fr)
• Romanian: plin (ro) n
• Russian: бога́тый (ru) (bogátyj), по́лный (ru) (pólnyj)

• Spanish: lleno de
• Swedish: packad (sv), full (sv) (av/med)

Derived terms

• lousy evil

Related terms

• cootie, crab louse, crabs, louse, pubic louse