Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Of, relating to, or characteristic of a parasite.
  • adjective Caused by a parasite.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • In ornithology, applied to birds which place their eggs in the nests of other birds.
  • Having the characters of the Parasitica.
  • Of the nature of a parasite; fawning for bread or favors; meanly dependent; acting the sycophant; like a parasite in any way; of things, secondary; subordinated to or arising from another thing of the same kind.
  • Specifically In zoology and botany, living or growing as a parasite; pertaining to or characteristic of parasites. See cut under Orobanche.
  • In philology, attached to a word erroneously or by false analogy: thus, d in vulgar drownd, t in margent, etc., are parasitic.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Of the nature of a parasite; having the habits of a parasite; fawning for food or favors; sycophantic.
  • adjective (Bot. & Zoöl.) Of or pertaining to parasites; living on, or deriving nourishment from, some other living animal or plant. See Parasite, 2 & 3.
  • adjective (Zoöl.) See Jager.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Pertaining to a biological or symbolic parasite.
  • adjective Drawing upon another organism for sustenance.
  • adjective Exploiting another for personal gain.
  • noun computing Component of a circuit that does not show up in a circuit's schematic but does show up in the circuit's behavior.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective of or pertaining to epenthesis
  • adjective of plants or persons; having the nature or habits of a parasite or leech; living off another
  • adjective relating to or caused by parasites

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

parasite +‎ -ic

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Examples

  • The term parasitic grid or parasitic network appears to originate from a single British Telecomm (BT) researcher named Peter Cochrane.

    Wi-Fi Networking News 2009

  • The term parasitic grid or parasitic network appears to originate from a single British Telecomm (BT) researcher named Peter Cochrane.

    Wi-Fi Networking News 2009

  • The term parasitic grid or parasitic network appears to originate from a single British Telecomm (BT) researcher named Peter Cochrane.

    Wi-Fi Networking News 2009

  • The term parasitic grid or parasitic network appears to originate from a single British Telecomm (BT) researcher named Peter Cochrane.

    Wi-Fi Networking News 2009

  • This particular type was what we call a parasitic set of twins -- like any parasite, where one being is living off of the other.

    CNN Transcript Nov 7, 2007 2007

  • This kind of completeness is rare in parasitic twins, especially among fetus in fetu, which tend not to be "alive" in the sense we think of, but rather a sort of growth in human form.

    Archive 2009-01-01 Heather McDougal 2009

  • This kind of completeness is rare in parasitic twins, especially among fetus in fetu, which tend not to be "alive" in the sense we think of, but rather a sort of growth in human form.

    How Twins Go Bad Heather McDougal 2009

  • Even allowing for Behe's misunderstanding concerning the evolution of drug resistance in parasitic Plasmodia, you've been exposed to this subject long enough to know that evolutionary theory does not predict that every possible trait will evolve, or how long it might take to evolve.

    Behe: ID rescues Common Descent 2007

  • Zachriel: Even allowing for Behe's misunderstanding concerning the evolution of drug resistance in parasitic Plasmodia, you've been exposed to this subject long enough to know that evolutionary theory does not predict that every possible trait will evolve, or how long it might take to evolve.

    Behe: ID rescues Common Descent 2007

  • I find her use of Twitter to express this interesting, especially since she herself in an earlier comment said she used the word parasitic because of the character limit of Twitter.

    Community Is Hard. Deal With It. 2008

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