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Chink vs Parasite - What's the difference?

chink | parasite |

As nouns the difference between chink and parasite

is that chink is (slang|offensive|ethnic slur) refers to a chinese or a person of chinese ethnicity while parasite is (pejorative) a person who lives on other people's efforts or expense and gives little or nothing back.

chink

English

Etymology 1

Of uncertain origin; but apparently an extension (with formative (m)) of (etyl) (m), from (etyl) .

Noun

(en noun)
  • A narrow opening such as a fissure or crack.
  • *1898 , , (Moonfleet) Chapter 4
  • *:Yet I did not give way, but settled to wait for the dawn, which must, I knew, be now at hand; for then I thought enough light would come through the chinks of the tomb above to show me how to set to work.
  • * Macaulay
  • Through one cloudless chink , in a black, stormy sky, / Shines out the dewy morning star.
  • A chip or dent (in something metallic).
  • A vulnerability or flaw in a protection system or in any otherwise formidable system, idiomatically derived from the phrase "chink in armor".
  • * The warrior saw a chink in her enemy's armor, and aimed her spear accordingly.
  • * The chink in the theory is that the invaders have superior muskets.
  • * {{quote-news
  • , year=2011 , date=January 30 , author=Kevin Darlng , title=Arsenal 2 - 1 Huddersfield , work=BBC citation , page= , passage=The first chink in Arsenal's relaxed afternoon occurred when key midfielder Samir Nasri pulled up with a hamstring injury and was replaced. }}

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To fill an opening such as the space between logs in a log house with chinking; to caulk.
  • to chink a wall
  • To crack; to open.
  • To cause to open in cracks or fissures.
  • Etymology 2

    Onomatopoeic.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A slight sound as of metal objects touching each other.
  • Ready money, especially in the form of coins.
  • *1834 , David Crockett, A Narrative of the Life of , Nebraska 1987, pp. 47-8:
  • *:I thought that if all the hills about there were pure chink , and all belonged to me, I would give them if I could just talk to her when I wanted to
  • * Somerville
  • to leave his chink to better hands

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To make a slight sound like that of metal objects touching.
  • The coins were chinking in his pocket.
  • To cause to make a sharp metallic sound, as coins, small pieces of metal, etc., by bringing them into collision with each other.
  • (Alexander Pope)

    Etymology 3

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • parasite

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (pejorative) A person who lives on other people's efforts or expense and gives little or nothing back.
  • (biology) an organism that lives on or in another organism, 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.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-03
  • , author= , title=The Smallest Cell , volume=101, issue=2, page=83 , magazine= citation , passage=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.}}
    ''Lice, fleas, ticks and mites are widely spread parasites .
  • (literary, poetic) A climbing plant which is supported by a wall, trellis etc.
  • * 1813 , (Percy Bysshe Shelley), Queen Mab , I:
  • Her golden tresses shade / The bosom’s stainless pride, / Curling like tendrils of the parasite / Around a marble column.

    Antonyms

    * commensal (doing no noticeable harm) * mutualist or sometimes symbiote (beneficial)

    See also

    * symbiont

    References

    *

    Anagrams

    * ----