beggar's lice


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beg·gar's lice

(bĕg′ərz)
n. (used with a sing. or pl. verb)
1. Any of several plants, such as bur marigold, stickseed, or tick trefoil, having small, often prickly fruits that cling readily to clothing or animal fur.
2. The fruit of any of these plants.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:
Noun1.beggar's lice - Eurasian and North American plants having small prickly nutlets that stick to clothingbeggar's lice - Eurasian and North American plants having small prickly nutlets that stick to clothing
beggar lice
genus Hackelia, genus Lappula, Hackelia, Lappula - stickweed; beggar's lice
stickweed - any of several herbaceous plants having seeds that cling to clothing
2.beggar's lice - any of various tropical and subtropical plants having trifoliate leaves and rough sticky pod sections or lomentsbeggar's lice - any of various tropical and subtropical plants having trifoliate leaves and rough sticky pod sections or loments
tick trefoil, beggar lice
Desmodium, genus Desmodium - beggarweed; tick trefoil
beggarweed, Desmodium purpureum, Desmodium tortuosum - West Indian forage plant cultivated in southern United States as forage and to improve soil
subshrub, suffrutex - low-growing woody shrub or perennial with woody base
Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. © 2003-2012 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.
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References in periodicals archive ?
THEY'RE HATED BY the owners of longhaired gun dogs everywhere--cockleburs, beggar's lice and all the other assorted sticktights that will mat up the feathering on a setter, spaniel or golden retriever faster than a finishing sprint by Usain Bolt at the Summer Olympic Games.
Ghillie dog
If they happen to be memorable, and stick to your mind like beggar's lice to a pant leg, so much the better.
Living color: Southwest Florida blooms with wildflowers
Spanish needle also is grouped with the "sticktight" crowd and I grew up calling it beggar's lice (as opposed to the desmodium "ticks").
Desmodium dog; these nasty seeds create headaches for hunters and their gun dogs

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