FLEA DEFINITIONS - 12 definitions found
flea n 1: any wingless bloodsucking parasitic insect noted for ability to leap flea O.E. fleah, from P.Gmc. *flaukh- (cf. O.N. flo, M.Du. vlo, Ger. floh), perhaps related to O.E. fleon "to flee," with a notion of "the jumping parasite." Flea market (1920), especially the Fr. march? aux puces in Paris, so-called "because there are so many second-hand articles sold of all kinds that they are believed to gather fleas." Oxford English Reference Dictionary
Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner\'s English Dictionary flea (fleas) A flea is a very small jumping insect that has no wings and feeds on the blood of humans or animals. N-COUNT Virtual Entity of Relevant Acronyms (Version 1.9, June 2002) FLEA Four Letter Extended Acronym Handy Dictionary of Poetical Quotations Flea So, naturalists observe, a flea Has smaller fleas that on him prey; And these have smaller still to bite 'em; And so proceed ad infinitum. SWIFT: Poetry, A Rhapsody. Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) Flea \Flea\, v. t. [See Flay.] To flay. [Obs.] He will be fleaced first And horse collars made of's skin. --J. Fletcher. Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) Flea \Flea\, n. [OE. fle, flee, AS. fle['a], fle['a]h; akin to D. ?, OHG. fl?h, G. floh, Icel. fl?, Russ. blocha; prob. from the root of E. flee. ? 84. See Flee.] (Zo["o]l.) An insect belonging to the genus Pulex, of the order Aphaniptera. Fleas are destitute of wings, but have the power of leaping energetically. The bite is poisonous to most persons. The human flea ({Pulex irritans}), abundant in Europe, is rare in America, where the dog flea ({P. canis}) takes its place. See Aphaniptera, and Dog flea. See Illustration in Appendix. A flea in the ear, 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. Beach flea, Black flea, etc. See under Beach, etc. International Standard Bible Encyclopedia FLEA fle (par`osh; compare Arabic barghut, "flea," and barghash, "mosquito" (1Sa 24:14; 26:20); kinnim (Ex 8:16), "lice," the Revised Version, margin "sandflies" or "fleas"; Septuagint skniphes, probably best rendered "gnat"; see GNAT; LICE): In 1Sa 24 Saul seeks David in the wilderness of En-gedi, and David, after cutting off the skirt of Saul's robe in the cave, calls out to him, "After whom is the king of Israel come out? after whom dost thou pursue? after a dead dog, after a flea" (24:14). Again in 1Sa 26:20 Saul seeks David in the wilderness of Ziph, and David after taking the spear and cruse from beside Saul while he slept, cries out to him, ".... the king of Israel is come out to seek a flea, as when one doth hunt a partridge in the mountains." The flea is here used as a symbol of David's insignificance, coupled perhaps, in the second passage, with a thought of the difficulty that Saul had in laying hands on him. In Encyclopedia Biblica Cheyne finds fault with a similar interpretation given in DB on the ground that it is absurd that David should refer to hunting "a single flea," and proposes to change par`osh 'echadh "a flea," to pere' midhbar, "wild ass of the desert." The writer will only say that no observant resident of Palestine would consider the textual alteration to be called for. Linnaeus recognized two species of flea, Pulex irritans, the common parasite of man, and Pulex (Sarcopsylla) penetrans, the tropical and sub-tropical jigger flea. More than a hundred species are now listed, and the recent discovery that certain fleas are instrumental in the transmission of the plague has given a new impetus to the study of these tiny pests. A flea that is often commoner in houses than Pulex irritans is the "dog and cat flea," variously known as Pulex serraticeps, Pulex canis, Pulex felis or Ctenocephalus canis. Alfred Ely Day Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary Flea David at the cave of Adullam thus addressed his persecutor Saul (1 Sam. 24:14): "After whom is the king of Israel come out? after whom dost thou pursue? after a dead dog, after a flea?" He thus speaks of himself as the poor, contemptible object of the monarch's pursuit, a "worthy object truly for an expedition of the king of Israel with his picked troops!" This insect is in Eastern language the popular emblem of insignificance. In 1 Sam. 26:20 the LXX. read "come out to seek my life" instead of "to seek a flea." Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 39 Moby Thesaurus words for "flea": broad jumper, bucking bronco, buckjumper, cat flea, chigoe, cockroach, crab, dog flea, frog, gazelle, goat, grasshopper, grayback, high jumper, hopper, hurdle racer, hurdler, jackrabbit, jigger, jumper, jumping bean, jumping jack, kangaroo, leaper, louse, mite, nit, parasite, pole vaulter, red bug, roach, salmon, sand flea, stag, sunfisher, timber topper, vaulter, vermin, weevil |
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