parasitize
Americanverb (used with object)
verb
-
to infest or infect with parasites
-
to live on (another organism) as a parasite
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of parasitize
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
“In order to fully hijack your ability to reason, I need to parasitize both your cognitive or thinking system, as well as your emotional affective system.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 10, 2026
"They parasitize the shells of bivalves like oysters, not the flesh of the animals themselves," said Nanglu.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 5, 2025
To understand orca parasites, she had been trying to study organisms that parasitize salmon, a favorite orca prey that might pass the parasites along to the whales.
From Science Magazine ● May 7, 2024
But many parasitologists like Wood focus on multicellular metazoans: animals that encompass hundreds of thousands of species, including up to 300,000 different types of worms that parasitize vertebrates alone.
From Scientific American ● May 18, 2022
Two roundworms were found to parasitize the guts of the salamanders; the parasitism looks to be benign.
From Natural History of the Salamander, Aneides hardii by Johnston, Richard F.
“But when the nests were parasitized, survival was over six times greater in urban nestlings compared to non-urban nestlings,” Knutie says.
From National Geographic ● Feb. 15, 2024
Surprisingly, more than 1400 of these wormy genes closely matched genes from the very mantises they parasitized.
From Science Magazine ● Oct. 19, 2023
The female wasp punctured the egg, laid her own egg inside and then searched for a location to bury the parasitized egg.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 19, 2023
Healed wounds aren’t uncommon among multiple types of fish captured in surveys, suggesting it’s possible to survive being parasitized.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 23, 2022
Which is the parasite and which the parasitized?
From The Religions of Japan From the Dawn of History to the Era of Méiji by Griffis, William Elliot
"They could be tiny plant seeds, plant secretions or eggs from a host the wasp was parasitizing," Poinar said.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 4, 2023
Yeah, it's this organism whose lifecycle depends on parasitizing other organisms, and it can infect pretty much all mammals.
From Salon ● Oct. 30, 2022
It is also terrifying in part because it preys on caregivers and loved ones, parasitizing the humanity of those who care for and come into close contact with the ill.
From Slate ● Oct. 14, 2014
Bed bugs are not specific to humans, but they are adapted to parasitizing us.
From Scientific American ● Jan. 23, 2012
It's always been there, anchored in the same cells, parasitizing the same sensitive tissues that carry our olfactory nerve endings, numbing them and crippling them, making them practically useless as sensory organs.
From The Coffin Cure by Nourse, Alan Edward
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
