Definition

Noun 1. A type of plant: Any of various plants, especially of the genera Desmodium or Hackelia, characterized by producing small, dry fruits (nutlets or loments) that are covered in tiny hooks or are sticky, causing them to cling to clothing and animal fur. 2. The clinging seed or fruit itself: The small, prickly, or sticky seed pods produced by these plants, which are notorious for attaching to passersby.

Usage and Examples

• The hiker spent an hour picking beggar's lice from his socks after walking through the meadow.
• Beggar's lice is a common name for several species of stickseed or tick trefoil.
• The dog came back from the field covered in beggar's lice.

Advanced Usage

• The term is often used in the plural form ("beggar's lice") to refer collectively to the seeds or the plants, even when discussing a single species.
• It can be used metaphorically to describe something persistent, annoying, and difficult to remove.
  • The unresolved paperwork was like beggar's lice on the project, clinging and slowing everything down.

Variants and Related Words

• Beggar-lice: An alternative spelling, sometimes written as a single word or without the apostrophe (e.g., beggar lice).
• Stickseed: A common synonym for plants producing similar clinging seeds.
• Tick trefoil or Tick clover: Refers specifically to plants of the genus , a common source of beggar's lice.
• Bur: A more general term for any plant seed or fruit that clings via hooks or spines.

Synonyms

• Bur
• Stickseed
• Cleavers (for a similar clinging plant, )
• Hitchhikers (colloquial)

Idioms and Phrases

• Like beggar's lice: Used to describe something that is tenacious, hard to get rid of, or that follows one persistently.
  • The scandal clung to the politician like beggar's lice.

Noun

1. any of various tropical and subtropical plants having trifoliate leaves and rough sticky pod sections or loments
2. Eurasian and North American plants having small prickly nutlets that stick to clothing