FLEA

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does flea mean? 

• FLEA (noun)
  The noun FLEA has 1 sense:

1. any wingless bloodsucking parasitic insect noted for ability to leap

  Familiarity information: FLEA used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• FLEA (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Any wingless bloodsucking parasitic insect noted for ability to leap

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Hypernyms ("flea" is a kind of...):

ectoparasite; ectozoan; ectozoon; epizoan; epizoon (any external parasitic organism (as fleas))

insect (small air-breathing arthropod)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "flea"):

Pulex irritans (the most common flea attacking humans)

Ctenocephalides canis; dog flea (flea that attacks dogs and cats)

cat flea; Ctenocephalides felis (flea that breeds chiefly on cats and dogs and rats)

chigger; chigoe; chigoe flea; Tunga penetrans (small tropical flea; the fertile female burrows under the skin of the host including humans)

Echidnophaga gallinacea; sticktight; sticktight flea (parasitic on especially the heads of chickens)

Holonyms ("flea" is a member of...):

order Siphonaptera; Siphonaptera (fleas)

 Context examples 

Mosquito, flea, and mite bites usually itch.

(Insect Bites and Stings, NIH)

It is usually transmitted to humans from bites of infected rodent fleas.

(Plague, NCI Thesaurus)

It is transmitted to humans from infected rat fleas.

(Endemic Typhus Fever, NCI Thesaurus)

People and other animals can get plague from rat or flea bites.

(Plague, NIH: National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases)

It has been used for inducing abortions, repelling fleas and ticks, and for treating illnesses of the digestive system.

(Pennyroyal Oil, NCI Thesaurus)

It is caused by drinking water contaminated with water fleas.

(Dracunculiasis, NCI Thesaurus)

Some, including crayfishes, live in freshwater habitats; others (e.g., sand fleas, land crabs, and sow bugs) live in moist terrestrial environments.

(Crustacean, NCI Thesaurus)

Peter Karsdale, who was but a common country lout newly brought over, with the English fleas still hopping under his doublet, laid his great hands upon the Sieur Amaury de Chatonville, who owns half Picardy, and had five thousand crowns out of him, with his horse and harness.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The doctor's watch were all back at their loopholes, the rest were busy loading the spare muskets, and everyone with a red face, you may be certain, and a flea in his ear, as the saying is.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

The bacteria are found mainly in rats and in the fleas that feed on them.

(Plague, NIH: National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases)