any wingless bloodsucking parasitic insect noted for ability to leap
"The flea jumped onto her knee and began biting her skin."
A small, wingless, parasitic insect of the order Siphonaptera, renowned for its bloodsucking habits and jumping abilities.
"The flea jumped onto the cat's fur to begin feeding on its blood."
In plain English: A flea is a tiny, wingless insect that lives on animals and bites them to drink their blood.
"The cat scratched itself because she had caught fleas in her garden."
Usage: Use this word to describe a tiny biting parasite that lives on mammals or birds. As a verb, it specifically means treating an infested pet with medication to eliminate these insects.
To remove fleas from (an animal).
"The archaic text uses an obsolete spelling of flay when it writes that he would flea the skin from his rival's back."
Obsolete spelling of flay
In plain English: To flea means to jump away quickly from something, usually as an animal does when it is startled.
"The dog started to flea and scratch itself after spending time in the tall grass."
The word "flea" comes from the Old English flēah, which traces back to a pre-Germanic root meaning something like "to jump." This ancient origin is related to words in other Indo-European languages, such as Latin pulex and Sanskrit plúṣi.