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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
parasitic
adjective
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ NOUN
disease
▪ But in a few years it could find applications in the long-term treatment of parasitic diseases, and even as a contraceptive pill.
▪ Giardia lamblia is a protozoa, a single-celled animal, responsible for one of the most prevalent parasitic diseases in the world.
▪ It is not surprising that the mortality due to feather pecking, cannibalism and parasitic diseases can be disturbingly high.
▪ The organisation's Chemical Synthesis Programme, launched in March 1982, aims to develop new drugs to treat parasitic diseases.
▪ They suffer from many parasitic diseases, and have high levels of infant and child mortality.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
Parasitic beetles often make their homes in the nests of ants.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Both free-living and parasitic phases of the life cycle are similar to those of the bovine species.
▪ Brood parasitic birds are becoming favoured examples in studies of coevolution.
▪ Destructiveness and self-doubt are preferable to the enfeebled body politic and the parasitic Church.
▪ It is only the female Ergasilus which is parasitic to fish.
▪ The free-living and parasitic stages are similar to those of Ostertagia.
▪ The more violent the oscillations the greater the amount of parasitic genetic material.
▪ The vector of the parasitic worm is a tiny crustacean, Cyclops.
▪ Urban elites are economically parasitic but politically dominant.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Parasitic

Parasitic \Par`a*sit"ic\ (p[a^]r`[.a]*s[i^]t"[i^]k), Parasitical \Par`a*sit"ic*al\ (p[a^]r`[.a]*s[i^]t"[i^]*kal), a. [L. parasiticus, Gr. ?: cf. F. parasitique.]

  1. Of the nature of a parasite; having the habits of a parasite; fawning for food or favors; sycophantic. ``Parasitic preachers.''
    --Milton.

    Syn: leechlike, bloodsucking.

  2. (Bot. & Zo["o]l.) Of or pertaining to parasites; living on, or deriving nourishment from, some other living animal or plant. See Parasite, 2 &

  3. Parasitic gull, Parasitic jager. (Zo["o]l.) See Jager. [1913 Webster] -- Par`a*sit"ic*al*ly, adv. -- Par`a*sit"ic*al*ness, n.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
parasitic

1620s, from Latin parasiticus, from Greek parasitikos "of or pertaining to a parasite; the trade of a parasite," from parasitos (see parasite). Biological sense is from 1731. Related: Parasitical, 1570s in reference to toadies; from 1640s in the biological sense.

Wiktionary
parasitic

a. 1 Pertaining to a biological or symbolic parasite. 2 Drawing upon another organism for sustenance. 3 exploit another for personal gain. n. (context computing English) Component of a circuit that does not show up in a circuit's schematic but does show up in the circuit's behavior.

WordNet
parasitic
  1. adj. relating to or caused by parasites; "parasitic infection" [syn: parasitical]

  2. of or pertaining to epenthesis [syn: epenthetic]

  3. of plants or persons; having the nature or habits of a parasite or leech; living off another; "a wealthy class parasitic upon the labor of the masses"; "parasitic vines that strangle the trees"; "bloodsucking blackmailer"; "his indolent leechlike existence" [syn: parasitical, leechlike, bloodsucking]

Wikipedia

Usage examples of "parasitic".

But mostly the horses are just there, useless, parasitic, grazing in the overgrazed fields, because there have always been horses in Milagro.

Exactly how much of human misery and despair was a natural consequence of sheer existence, and how much due to the interference of this vast panoply of unearthly parasitic beings?

These were cannibal bats that rampaged among the roosting species, all of which were covered with tiny bloodsucking insects which themselves provided asylum for even smaller parasitic blood-fleas.

I can thus only understand a fact with which I was much struck when examining cirripedes, and of which many other instances could be given: namely, that when a cirripede is parasitic within another and is thus protected, it loses more or less completely its own shell or carapace.

Ethel, nearly dead of tuberculosis, or Astoria here, once suffering the agony of raging gonorrhoea, or Little Red, slated to die within the year from parasitic infection.

Chapter VII Instinct Instincts comparable with habits, but different in their origin -- Instincts graduated -- Aphides and ants -- Instincts variable -- Domestic instincts, their origin -- Natural instincts of the cuckoo, ostrich, and parasitic bees -- Slave-making ants -- Hive-bee, its cell-making instinct - - Difficulties on the theory of the Natural Selection of instincts -- Neuter or sterile insects -- Summary.

Examples are malaria, sleeping-sickness, and leishmaniasis in humans, and lots of other parasitic diseases in reptiles, fishes, and octopuses.

But mostly the horses are just there, useless, parasitic, grazing in the overgrazed fields, because there have always been horses in Milagro.

We should remember that plants in a state of nature would probably secrete in 48 hours much more than the above large amount, for their roots would continue all the time absorbing sap from the plant on which they were parasitic.

Other predators include parasitic wasps, aphid lions, predaceous mites and syrphid flies.

The working class of the ex-Soviet Union will come to understand fully the meaning and importance of the heroic struggle carried out by Leon Trotsky against the usurpers and gravediggers of the Russian Revolution and will once again take the road of genuine socialism, under the democratic administration of the working class, rejecting the one-party state and parasitic bureaucracies.

I can only make in this place the following general remark:--When the Mutual Aid institutions--the tribe, the village community, the guilds, the medieval city--began, in the course of history, to lose their primitive character, to be invaded by parasitic growths, and thus to become hindrances to progress, the revolt of individuals against these institutions took always two different aspects.

A number of parasitic wasps will attack earworms, and green lacewings make excellent predators too.

All his usual enemies were there, however: sting-wings from the swamp, a multiplicity of flesh beetles, snappers, and various small carnivorous reptiles, together with fast-creepers and parasitic horrors too numerous to classify.

Its parasitic tendrils lived in her brain, opening her to the influence of his charismata.