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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Parasite \Par"a*site\ (p[a^]r"[.a]*s[imac]t), noun [F., fr. L. parasitus, Gr. para'sitos, lit., eating beside, or at the table of, another; para' beside + sitei^n to feed, from sitos wheat, grain, food.]
1. One who frequents the tables of the rich, or who lives at another's expense, and earns his welcome by flattery; a hanger-on; a toady; a sycophant.
Thou, with trembling fear, Or like a fawning parasite, obey'st. --Milton.
Parasites were called such smell-feasts as would seek to be free guests at rich men's tables. --Udall.
2. (Bot.) (a) A plant obtaining nourishment immediately from other plants to which it attaches itself, and whose juices it absorbs; -- sometimes, but erroneously, called epiphyte. (b) A plant living on or within an animal, and supported at its expense, as many species of fungi of the genus {Torrubia}.
3. (Zo["o]l.) (a) An animal which lives during the whole or part of its existence on or in the body of some other animal, feeding upon its food, blood, or tissues, as lice, tapeworms, etc. (b) An animal which steals the food of another, as the parasitic jager. (c) An animal which habitually uses the nest of another, as the cowbird and the European cuckoo.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
parasite
noun
1: an animal or plant that lives in or on a host (another animal or plant); the parasite obtains nourishment from the host without benefiting or killing the host [ant: {host}]
2: a follower who hangs around a host (without benefit to the host) in hope of gain or advantage [syn: {leech}, {sponge}, {sponger}]
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
149 Moby Thesaurus words for "parasite": adherent, algae, appendage, attendance, attendant, autophyte, barnacle, bean, beat, bedbug, beggar, bloodsucker, body of retainers, bracken, brown algae, buff, bummer, cadger, cat flea, cavaliere servente, chigoe, climber, cockroach, cohort, conferva, confervoid, cortege, coupon clippers, court, courtier, crab, creeper, dangler, deadbeat, dependent, diatom, disciple, dog flea, drone, entourage, fan, fern, flea, flunky, follower, following, freeloader, fruits and vegetables, fucus, fungus, grapevine, grayback, green algae, gulfweed, hanger-on, henchman, herb, heterophyte, homme de cour, hyena, idle rich, idler, ivy, jackal, jigger, kelp, laze, leech, legume, leisure class, lentil, liana, lichen, liverwort, lounge lizard, louse, lumpen proletariat, mendicant, mite, mold, moocher, mosquito, moss, mushroom, nit, nonworker, panhandler, parasitic plant, parasitize, partisan, pea, perthophyte, phytoplankton, planktonic algae, plant families, public, puffball, pulse, pursuer, pursuivant, red algae, red bug, rentiers, retinue, roach, rockweed, rout, rust, sand flea, saprophyte, sargasso, sargassum, satellite, scrounge, scrounger, sea lentil, sea moss, sea wrack, seaweed, sectary, shadow, smell-feast, smut, spiv, sponge, sponger, stooge, successor, succulent, sucker, suite, supporter, tagtail, tail, the unemployable, the unemployed, tick, toadstool, train, trainbearer, vermin, vetch, vine, votary, ward heeler, weevil, wood tick, wort, wrack
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