woodlouse

8.8

A small grey animal with many legs that lives in damp places and curls into a ball when touched

noun
/ˈwʊdˌlaʊs/

: cochinilla de humedad

I found a woodlouse under the old log.

Examples

Children often collect woodlice as part of science projects at school.
I found a woodlouse under the flowerpot in the garden.
The woodlouse curled up tightly when disturbed.
The garden is full of woodlice after the rain.
The woodlouse crawled under a damp leaf to escape the sunlight.
Many gardeners find a woodlouse hiding in the moist soil of their garden.
While digging in the garden, I discovered a woodlouse scurrying across the ground.

Synonyms

slater

vswoodlouse

74 9.9

A small flat animal with a hard shell that lives in damp places

is the general nontechnical name for that small damp-habitat crustacean

wood louse

vswoodlouse

7.4

A small grey animal with a flat, segmented body that lives under damp logs or stones

is the single-word modern spelling for that same animal

How Damaging

powder-post beetle

Specialized

9.4

termite

63 2.9

bark beetle

1 6.5

woodlouse

8.8

Surface Forms

woodlouse singular

woodlice plural

Morphology

woodlouse = wood + louse (transparent) = wood + louse

The components 'wood' + 'louse' straightforwardly yield the sense 'a small creature associated with wood', so learners can reasonably infer the meaning.

Etymology

Woodlouse comes from two simple English words, wood ('trees' or 'wood') and louse ('a small insect'), so the name literally means a tiny 'louse' found in wood and other damp places. That's why a woodlouse is the small, slow animal you often find under logs and flowerpots.