cootie catcher

noun

plural cootie catchers

: a child's toy that consists of paper folded into four pyramid-shaped parts that are manipulated by the fingers to open and close with each part having a flap that can be unfolded to reveal an answer to one's question about the future : fortune teller

Mark Buck erects a giant array of the little folded-paper fortune-telling games that children call cootie-catchers …

—Michael Scott

And if you've ever made a cootie catcher, you know that origami has the power to unlock worlds of unparalleled fun.

—Tucson (Arizona) Weekly

Word History

First Known Use

1971, in the meaning defined above