A small, itchy mark or wound on the skin caused by a flea biting you, or something that is very small and relatively unimportant.
Compound of 'flea' and 'bite,' from Old English. Used literally since at least the 1500s, and figuratively since the 1600s to mean something trivial.
Shakespeare probably used 'fleabite' as an insult because nothing was more annoying than a flea bite—small but infuriating—making it the perfect metaphor for petty annoyances!
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