Meaning & use
de-flea
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Meaning
verbtransitive
to remove fleas from an animal or from a place where animals live.
Grammar: Takes an object: de-flea the dog. The object is the animal or the place treated, not the fleas.
Patterns
- de-flea something
- de-flea an animal
- de-flea a house
We had to de-flea the cat before the new baby arrived.
The vet showed us how to de-flea the puppies safely.
You should de-flea the whole house, not just the pets.
Word forms
| third person singular | de-fleas |
|---|---|
| past tense | de-fleaed |
| past participle | de-fleaed |
| -ing form | de-fleaing |
Common combinations
- de-flea a pet
- It costs about twenty dollars to de-flea a pet at that clinic.
- de-flea the house
- We spent the weekend trying to de-flea the house.
- de-flea regularly
- If you de-flea regularly, the problem never gets out of control.
- need to de-flea
- The kittens need to de-flea before they can be adopted.
Synonyms and how they differ
Word family
- flea noun
- The small jumping insect that this verb removes.
- de-fleaing noun
- The act or treatment of removing fleas.
Commonly confused: de-flea or deflea?
de-flea vs deflea
Many people write it without a hyphen; both forms are understood, but the hyphenated spelling is clearer.
Practice
Which sentence uses de-flea correctly?
Choose one answer.
The verb takes the animal or place as its object, so the vet treats the dog. The other options put the object in the wrong role.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “de-flea”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.