a. Also 4–8 lowsy(e, (4 lousi, 5 lowse, -i), 6–7 lous-, lowsie, -ye, -zie, -zy, 8 lowsey. [f. LOUSE sb. + -Y.]
1. Full of lice, infested by lice.
1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. V. 195. With an hode on his hed a lousi hatte aboue.
1486. Bk. St. Albans, B v. A medecyne for an hawke that is lowse.
1523. Fitzherb., Husb., § 117. There be horses that wyll be lowsy, and it cometh of pouertie, colde and yll kepynge.
a. 1572. Knox, Hist. Ref., Wks. 1846, I. 74. Your cord and lowsie coit and sark.
1652. Culpepper, Eng. Physic. (1809), 134. Some authors say, the eating of them [figs] makes people lousy.
1653. Walton, Compl. Angler, 130. If I catch a Trout in one Meadow, he shall be white and faint, and very like to be lowsie.
1677. Johnson, in Ray’s Corr. (1848), 127. The sight of one of these [salmon] makes a fisher leap for joy, especially if his gills be lousy.
1697. Phil. Trans., XIX. 394. I call him the Lousie Beetle, because when taken, he is generally found to be infested with small Vermin, like Lice.
1707. Mortimer, Husb., 253. The Sweet-bryar and Gooseberry that are only lousie in dry times or in very hot and dry places.
1710. Addison, Tatler, No. 229, ¶ 1. A very ordinary Microscope shows us, that a Louse is itself a very lousy Creature.
1890. C. Patmore, Lett., 23 May, in B. Champneys, Mem. (1900), II. 136. These are both large fish, but they are habitually what the fishermen call ‘unclean’ and ‘lousy’; so they don’t try to catch them.
1901. R. Kipling, Kim, i. 26. I do not give to a lousy Tibetan.
† b. Characterized by the presence of lice. Lousy disease, evil = PHTHIRIASIS. Obs.
1519. Horman, Vulg., iii. 34. Antiochus, Sylla, and Herodde dyed in the lowsy euyll.
1538. Elyot, Dict., Pherecydes,… which dyed of the lousy sickenesse.
1579–80. North, Plutarch, Sylla (1595), 520. Acastus the sonne of Pelias died of the lowsie euill.
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist. (1776), VII. 274. The Pthiriasis [sic], or lousy disease, though very little known at present, was frequent enough among the ancients.
1830. Lindley, Nat. Syst. Bot., 138. The lousy diseases to which people are very subject in those countries.
c. Lousy grass, † (a) Stinking Hellebore, Helleborus fœtidus; (b) Spergula arvensis (1875 in Britten & Holland).
1597. Gerarde, Herbal, II. ccclxi. 827. The thirde and fourth [kinds of Black Hellebore] are named in the Germane toong Lowszkraut, that is Peduncularis, or Lowsie grasse.
1611. Cotgr., s.v. Ellebore.
2. fig. Dirty, filthy, obscene. Also as a general term of abuse: Mean, scurvy, sorry, vile, contemptible. Now rare.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Friar’s T., 169. A lowsy Iogelour kan deceyue thee.
1532. More, Confut. Tindale, Wks. (1557), 463/2. He loueth her with suche a lewde lowsye loue, as the lewde lousy louer in lechery loueth himself.
1568. Grafton, Chron., II. 613. His base birth and lowsy lynage.
1596. Nashe, Saffron Walden, 34. It is no vpright conclusion to say whatsoever is long laboured, is lowsie and not worth a straw.
1663. Dryden, Wild Gallant, I. i. And to discredit me before Strangers; for a lousie, paltry sum of Mony?
1708. Brit. Apollo, No. 38. 2/1. Wicked Rhimes … sung to lowsey Tunes.
1768. Sterne, Sent. Journ. (1775), I. 65 (Remise Door). You can never after … be anything in it [the church], said Pride, but a lousy prebendary.
1786. Trials, etc. J. Shepperd. I might pick up the lousy guinea myself and be damned!
1893. Stevenson, Catriona, 65. The lousiest, lowest, story to hand down to your namesakes in the future.
