pulicous, a. rare.
(ˈpjuːlɪkəs)
Also erron. pulicious.
[ad. L. pūlicōs-us, f. pūlex flea: see -ous.]
Abounding in fleas; fleay.
| 1658 Phillips, Pulicous, full of fleas. 1721–90 in Bailey. 1843 Le Fevre Life Trav. Phys. i. xviii, A pulicious fever, caused by lying upon an old leathern sofa, prevented me from closing my eyes. 1853 G. J. Cayley Las Alforjas I. 197 We slept in our clothes across a very pulicious mattress. |
So
ˈpulicose a., infested with fleas, flea-bitten;
Path. resembling flea-bites;
puliˈcosity, the condition of being infested with fleas.
| 1730 Bailey (folio), *Pulicose, abounding with or full of Fleas. [Hence in J., etc.] 1822–34 Good's Study Med. (ed. 4) II. 637 Pulicose or petechial spots were at one time supposed to be in every instance the result of debilitating and putrid fevers. Ibid. 638 Simple pulicose scurvy.—Exhibiting from the first a pulicose or flea-bite appearance. |
| 1656 Blount Glossogr., *Pulicosity, abundance of Fleas. 1809 European Mag. LX. 20 He could not get a wink of sleep..from the extreme pulicosity of the beds. |