to claim cooties

9.7

Say you have an imaginary germ that other children can catch as a joke

phrasal verb
/kleɪm ˈkuːtiz/

Baby Talk

: decir que tienes 'cooties'

When one boy sneezed, the others jokingly claimed cooties to avoid sitting near him.

Examples

She pretended to claim cooties to make her friends laugh at lunch.
I claim cooties to avoid playing tag!
During recess, several children began to claim cooties after touching the playground railings.
She claims cooties whenever it's her turn.
During recess, several children began to claim cooties after touching the playground railings.
When one boy sneezed, the others jokingly claimed cooties to avoid sitting near him.
She pretended to claim cooties to make her friends laugh at lunch.

Synonyms

to catch a cootie

vsto claim cooties

Baby Talk

9.5

To pretend to get a small, not real illness from another person

says jokingly that one has an imagined disease rather than actually getting it

Surface Forms

claim cooties infinitive

claimed cooties past

claimed cooties past participle

claiming cooties present participle

claims cooties third person singular

Morphology

claim + cooties

The meaning is directly built from 'claim' (to assert) combined with 'cooties' (children's imaginary germs); a learner who knows both words can infer it means jokingly asserting one has or invokes these imaginary germs. This is a straightforward verb + noun composition without idiomatic shift, so the sense is predictable from the constituents.

Etymology

Claim cooties comes from children's play when a child says someone has cooties, a name for 'imaginary germs', to tease or make others avoid them. So, to claim cooties now means to jokingly say someone has this 'pretend sickness'.