-louse, sfx — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

-louse sfx

[used with qualifying n.]

(US) used in combs. to refer to a despicable person, a waster, a hanger-on.

1931		D. Maurer ‘Carnival Cant’ in AS VI:5 330: Carnival-louse, n. A hanger-on who follows a carnival, but who has no official connection with it.
1941		B. Schulberg What Makes Sammy Run 106: She had chased her share of brassy guys out of the office, ad-space salesmen and small-time agents and the usual studio lounge-lice.
1958		A. King Mine Enemy Grows Older (1959) 99: Most of them were professional booze lice who crawled from one vernissage to the other.

lens louse (n.)

(US) a person who monopolizes the camera; sometimes ext. to someone who monopolizes a conversation.

1915		Goodwin’s Wkly (Salt Lake City, UT) 9 Oct. 14/3: ‘Here comes the lens louse.’ Such was the greeting offered me by the boys [...] said Dustin Farum, star of Paramount pictures.
1921		Eve. Public Ledger (Phila., PA) 6 Sept. 14/5: A lens louse is an actor who gets up as close to the camera as the director will let him and then turns very slowly so as to keep his face in the camera’s lens as long as possible.
1922		Appleton Post-Crescent (WI) 8 May 11/1: Flapper Dictionary lens-louse – A person given to monopolizing the conversation.
1928		‘Movie Talk’ AS III:5 368: Actors who strive for the most advantageous positions [before the camera] are also called ‘lens lice’.
1930		J.P. McEvoy Hollywood Girl 57: I have a movie contract. Tomorrow I start making faces at the camera. I will be what they call a lens louse.
1951		C. Stoker Thicker ’n Thieves 191: He became a first class ‘lens louse.’ If a newspaper photographer was in hailing distance, Bowron’s ears twitched, his nostrils flared and he pawed the earth like a plunging stallion who had just seen a trim filly.
2007		The Muffyblog at dangermuffy.blogspot.com 6 Jan. 🌐 Photographers have to be on the lookout for ‘lens-louses’ who want to get in the shot, just so they can see themselves in the paper. Apparently many pictures get ruined if a photographer fails to notice a lens louse.

road louse (n.)

(US) a Ford motor car, but note cite 1916.

1910		Ariz. Repub. (Phoenix, AZ) 8 Nov. 1/7: It was regarded as a joke when the little ‘road louse’ entered the race.
1913		Bemidji Dly Pioneer (MN) 15 Dec. 1/5: Ford owners in Bemidji are today saying ‘The much abused road louse is good enough for me’.
1914		Sport (Adelaide) 5 June 4/6: What price Milo Quick being caught [...] for not having a glimmer on his motor road louse.
1915		M.G. Hayden ‘Terms Of Disparagement’ in DN IV:iii 210: road-louse, a Ford automobile. ‘Here comes a road-louse.’.
1916		Ogden Standard (UT) 16 Sept. 7/1: [advt] bug bug take her away. cadillac road louse. Painted red; only $250.00.
1920		Coconino Sun (Flagstaff, AZ) 4 June 6/2: The Lizzie stated ahead with a bound. Mike was knocked down by the onrushing road louse.
1922		Ogden Standard-Examiner (UT) 5 Feb. 12/2: ‘The buzz buggy,’ ‘the gas wagon,’ ‘the bus,’ ‘the litle ol’ boat,’ ‘the road louse,’ ‘the buckboard’ — a wealth of pet names.