lousy
Bad, sorry, or no-account. The kind of word you spit out when something ain't worth the trouble.
Updated September 24, 2026
lousy pronunciation
/LOW-zee/
Meaning
In redneck and Appalachian talk, lousy means pitiful, poor quality, or just plain no good. You can call a meal lousy, a job lousy, or an excuse lousy. Folks also say they feel lousy when they're under the weather. It still carries a little sting from the old sense of being crawling with lice, which is about as low as praise gets.
How folks use it
- “That was a lousy excuse for supper: cold beans and burnt cornbread.”
- “I been feelin' lousy since that storm blew through.”
Origin and etymology
Built from louse plus -y. Back in Middle English it meant infested with lice. By the late 1300s writers already used it for sorry or contemptible people and things. American speech kept the figurative sense, and rural Southern and Appalachian talk still leans on it for anything pitiful or worthless.
Frequently asked questions
Does lousy still mean covered in lice?
Almost never in everyday talk. Older folks may still use it that way now and then, but most people just mean bad or sorry.