parasite
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈpæɹəˌsaɪt/
ipa: /ˈpæɹəˌsaɪt/
ipa: /ˈpɛɹəˌsaɪt/
rhymes: -aɪt
Forms: form: parasites
Etymology: From Middle French parasite, from Latin parasitus, from Ancient Greek παράσιτος (parásitos, “person who eats at the table of another”), from noun use of adjective meaning "feeding beside", from παρά (pará, “beside”) + σῖτος (sîtos, “food”).
Senses: examples: text: Lice, fleas, ticks, and mites are widely spread parasites.
text: ...and the mistletoe crept round many of the oaks—that pleasant parasite, whose associations belong rather to the hearth and lighted hall than to its native branches.
ref: 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XIX, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume III, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 154:
text: It is likely that the long evolutionary trajectory of Mycoplasma went from a reductive autotroph to oxidative heterotroph to a cell-wall–defective degenerate parasite. This evolutionary trajectory assumes the simplicity to complexity route of biogenesis, a point of view that is not universally accepted.
ref: 2013 March 24, Harold J. Morowitz, “The Smallest Cell”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 2, archived from the original on 04 Jan 2017, page 83:
topics: biology
natural-sciences
glosses: An organism that lives on or in another organism of a different species, deriving benefit from living on or in that other organism, while not contributing towards that other organism sufficiently to cover the cost to that other organism.
examples: text: He lacks, however, even the basic Dr. Kildare lingo about medical issues. For instance, he regularly misidentifies poppers as amyl nitrate, instead of amyl nitrite — two forms of heart medicine with different affects ^([sic]). Salmonella, a bacteria, is not usually classified as a parasite. And he mistakenly writes, "lenti means slow" in the lentiviruses. ("Lenti" means lens-shaped, biologists classify by structure, not by behavior.)
ref: 1987 December 27, Charley Shively, “AIDS In The Mind Of The Left And The Mainstream”, in Gay Community News, volume 15, number 24, page 9:
text: Select a disease class
Virus: Fastest evolution, Most affected by environment, Bonus to infectivity
Bacteria: Medium evolution, Normally affected by environment, Bonus to drug resistance
Parasite: Slowest evolution, Least affected by environment, Low visibility
ref: 2008 July 14, Dark Realm Studios, Pandemic II, Web:
text: Any germs or parasites on the surface of the meat that you could conceivably wash off are gonna die as soon as you cook it, so don't bother washing it.
ref: 2020 November 20, Adam Ragusea, 1:13 from the start, in Why People Wash Meat (or Don't):
topics: biology
natural-sciences
glosses: An organism that lives on or in another organism of a different species, deriving benefit from living on or in that other organism, while not contributing towards that other organism sufficiently to cover the cost to that other organism.
An internal parasite that is an animal or protist.
examples: text: A royalist who publicly called for a military intervention to protect the parasite monarchy.
ref: 2021 December 1, monamu98, “Thai and Korean netizens oppose debut of H1-Key's Sitala over father's alleged support of dictatorship”, in sportskeeda.com, sportskeeda, retrieved 03 Dec 2021:
text: Of all the corrupting effects of wealth there is none worse than this, that it makes the wealthy (and their parasites) think in some way divine, or at least a lovely character of the mind, what is in truth nothing but their power of luxurious living.
ref: 1902, Hilaire Belloc, The Path to Rome:
synonyms: word: bloodsucker
word: bummer
word: freeloader
word: free rider
word: gadfly
word: leech
word: mooch
word: moocher
word: parasite
word: scrounge
word: scrounger
word: scunge
word: smell-feast
word: sponge
word: sponger
word: sucker
word: trencher mate
glosses: A person who lives on other people's efforts or expense and gives little or nothing back.
glosses: A sycophant or hanger-on.
examples: text: Her golden tresses shade / The bosom's stainless pride, / Curling like tendrils of the parasite / Around a marble column.
ref: 1813, Percy Bysshe Shelley, “Canto I”, in Queen Mab; […], London: […] P. B. Shelley, […], →OCLC, page 3:
glosses: A climbing plant which is supported by a wall, trellis etc.
glosses: A retainer or companion of an ancient Celtic warrior, who praised him in song or poetry at gatherings; a bard.
examples: text: […] parasiting and aerial refueling as range-extension measures. Second, parasiting would be exorbitantly expensive, because each parasite bomber would need its own carrier. Two bombers could be serviced by a single tanker, however,[…]
ref: 2019 January 24, Michael E. Brown, Flying Blind: The Politics of the U.S. Strategic Bomber Program, Cornell University Press, →ISBN, page 170:
topics: aeronautics
aerospace
aviation
business
engineering
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
glosses: A component of a composite aircraft which is carried aloft and air-launched by a larger carrier aircraft or mother ship to support the primary mission of the carrier; a parasite aircraft.
examples: text: parasite display
text: parasite stand
text: parasite unit
topics: business
commerce
retail
glosses: An isolated (FSDU) (freestanding display unit )
Derived terms: alloparasite
antiparasite
brood parasite
coproparasite
ecoparasite
ectoparasite
endoparasite
enteroparasite
entomoparasite
epiparasite
exoparasite
haemoparasite
hemiparasite
hemoparasite
holoparasite
hyperparasite
kleptoparasite
macroparasite
mesoparasite
microparasite
multiparasite
mycoparasite
neuroparasite
nonparasite
nosoparasite
parasital
parasitary
parasitation
parasite aircraft
parasitelike
parasitemia
parasitic
parasitical
parasiticide
parasitisation
parasitise
parasitism
parasitization
parasitize
parasitocenosis
parasitoid
parasitological
parasitology
parasitome
parasitophobia
parasitophorous
parasitosis
phytoparasite
pseudoparasite
semiparasite
superparasite
welfare parasite
wound parasite
xenoparasite
zooparasite
Related terms: facultative
obligate
symbiont