Green’s Dictionary of Slang

louse n.

1. an extremely contemptible or untrustworthy individual.

[UK]Mercurius Fumigosus 40 28 Feb.–7 Mar. 316: There had like to have been a more mortall fray then was betwixt the Taylor and the Lowse.
[UK]R. Steele Tatler No. 239 n.p.: He complains to the World, that I call him Names, and that in my Passion I said, he was a Flea, a Louse [...] and a Nibbler.
[UK]Smollett Humphrey Clinker (1925) I 138: He damns all the other writers of the age [...] One is a blunderbuss, as being a native of Ireland; another a half-starved louse of literature, from the banks of the Tweed.
[UK]Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (2nd, 3rd edn) n.p.: louse A gentleman’s companion.
[UK]Lex. Balatronicum.
[UK]Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
[US]q. in Wiley Life of Billy Yank (1952) 199: You kiss my arse, you God damned louse.
[US]J. O’Connor Wanderings of a Vagabond 288: ‘What more could you expect from such a dirty, cowardly louse?’ asked Mr. Chapin.
[US]Flynt & Walton Powers That Prey 218: You dirty louse.
[US]G. Bronson-Howard God’s Man 278: Why do these frails fall for such a louse?
[Ire]S. O’Casey Plough and the Stars Act II: You louse, you!
[UK]R. Westerby Wide Boys Never Work (1938) 197: You dirty yellow cowson, I’ll show you up for the louse you are!
[US]J. Weidman What’s In It For Me? 159: I know I’m a louse. I know I’m a heel and all that.
[Aus]K. Tennant Battlers 251: Ye’re rolling in money and mean as a louse.
[US]L. Lariar Day I Died 158: Who’s the louse in the deal, is what I mean.
[US]M. Spillane Return of the Hood 82: You had to kill Fly and him and now you want to kill Irish too. You damn louse.
[UK]Wodehouse Much Obliged, Jeeves 159: Bertie, you abysmal louse, what’s kept you all this time?
[UK]W. Russell Educating Rita I ii: It’s crap because the feller who wrote it was a louse.
[US]T. Jones Pugilist at Rest 132: I was just a kid, but even so, I knew he was a louse.

2. (US black/gay) as the lice, police who arrest transvestites working as street prostitutes.

[US]L. Pettiway Honey, Honey, Miss Thang 251: When you get picked up and taken to Police Headquarters and you’re in drag everybody hoots and hollers, ‘I know that ain’t no man! That’s not no man! Don’t put that woman in here’ [...] They hold you for no more than an hour [...] They just let you go. Just to take you off the corner. They’re called the lice.

SE in slang uses

In compounds

lousebound (adj.)

a general abusive epithet, lit. one who is infested with lice.

[UK]A. McLean Vive la Legion 169: ‘Blimey, what a louse bound officer,’ he exclaimed, ‘makes a bet and tries to do me, then when I win, he hits me and won’t pay’.
[Aus]X. Herbert Capricornia (1939) 282: The dirty lousebound old skut!
[UK]G. Kersh Nine Lives Bill Nelson 41: Do you think, you lousebound twit, that you’re getting the better of a man if you put that man down for a second!
[UK]M. Leigh Cross of Fire 191: God damn all louse-bound civvies!
[Ire](con. 1940s) B. Behan Borstal Boy 141: You lousebound bastard, said I to myself.
[Aus]D. Niland Pairs and Loners 81: There was a lousebound sod I was with out of Angledool one year. Gord, was he something mother should have drowned.
[Aus]J. O’Grady Gone Troppo (1969) 184: If I ever go back to that louse-bound shack / I’ll give that boss some wingein’.
louse cage (n.) (also louse trap)(US)

1. a cheap hotel or lodging house.

[US]Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues 42: It was like the Waldorf-Astoria compared to the louse-trap I’d been in.
[US]Goldin et al. DAUL 129/2: Louse trap. A cheap lodging house.

2. (US) a hat.

[US]DN I 398: Louse-cage: n. common among school boys for ‘hat’.
[US]Carr & Chase ‘Word-List From Eastern Maine’ in DN III:iii 246: louse cage, n. Hat or cap.
[US]R.W. Brown ‘Word-List From Western Indiana’ in DN III:viii 582: louse trap, n. A hat [...] ‘Well, take off your louse-trap and stay awhile.’.
[US]M.G. Hayden ‘Terms Of Disparagement’ in DN IV:iii 209: louse-cage, hat. ‘Here’s your louse-cage. I don’t want it.’.
[US]J. Stevens ‘Logger Talk’ AS I:3 137/2: In the bunkhouse they hang up their ‘louse cages’—hats—and ‘souse themselves.’.
[US]Irwin Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 124: Louse Cage. – A hat, which is supposed to confine the lice.
[US]Ragen & Finston World’s Toughest Prison 808: louse cage – A hat.

3. a bunkhouse.

[US]J. Stevens ‘Logger Talk’ AS I:3 138/1: They took the term ‘louse cage (hat)’ and applied it to the whole bunkhouse.

4. a railroad caboose.

[US]F.H. Hubbard Railroad Avenue 351: Louse cage – Caboose.
louse house (n.) (also loose house, louse dump, ...hole, ...trap)

1. a prison.

[UK]Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
[UK]G. Andrewes Dict. Sl. and Cant.
[UK]Lex. Balatronicum.
[UK]Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
[UK] ‘Birmingham Jack’ in R. Palmer Touch of the Times 211: In Philip Street sold blacking paste, In High Street kept the louse-hole.
[UK]Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open 114: Loose house, round house or cage.
[US] in Amer. Mercury Dec. 413: He’d rather do six months in the louse-house.
[US]Goldin et al. DAUL 129/2: Louse trap. [...] a verminous prison or jail.

2. a seedy hotel or lodging house, or confined space.

‘Kilkenny Louse House’ [ trad. ballad title].
[US]Number 1500 Life In Sing Sing 256: Louse House. Lodging house.
Scrap Book 9 785: ‘Pad- money’ is the price of a bed in a cheap ‘scratch-house’ or ‘dump’ or ‘dosshouse’ or ‘louse-house’ .
[UK] (ref. to 1920s) L. Duncan Over the Wall 28: [He] hadn’t as yet gained back his old nerve enough to go out and pull a job [...] Hence the sojourn in the louse-dump.
[Aus]R.S. Close Love me Sailor 10: Only for that rutting Miss Miller I wouldn’t be back in this godamned louse house!
Lousetown (n.)

(US) a slum, the poor area of a town or city.

[Can]R. Service ‘The Ballad of Touch-the-Button Nell’ in Bar Room Ballads (1978) 623: They gave a dance in Lousetown, and the Tenderloin was there.
louse trap (n.)

1. (also Scotch louse trap) a toothcomb.

[UK]B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: A Scoth [sic] Louse-trap, a Comb.
[UK]New Canting Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
[UK]Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
[UK]Dyche & Pardon New General Eng. Dict. (5th edn).
[UK]Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
[UK]Lex. Balatronicum.
[Ire]Spirit of Irish Wit 102: [L]ouse traps [means] their combs used in tossing.
[UK]Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
[UK] ‘Birmingham Jack’ in R. Palmer Touch of the Times 210: At the Old Wharf I did sell coal, in Suffolk Street made louse-traps.
[UK]Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc.
[UK]Hotten Sl. Dict.
[UK]Sl. Dict.

2. the hair; the head.

[UK]D. Carey Life in Paris 337: Why does thou louse-trap elevate it’s locks, / Unkempt and unadorn’d.

3. a sideburn or sidewhisker; usu. in pl.

[UK]Partridge DSUE (8th edn) 703: C.20.