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

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''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.

Noun

(en noun)

(Australia, slang, obsolete) A pimp, a man living off the earnings of a harlot. 1966 , Sidney J. Baker, The Australian Language'', second edition, chapter VI, section 3, page 129—''mentions an 1882 record of the "pimp" usage

* 1997 , Barbara Ann Sullivan, The Politics of Sex: Prostitution and Pornography in Australia since 1945 , page 30,

This was the bludger' or, in American parlance, the pimp, a man who lived on the earnings of prostitution. He was often the husband or boyfriend of a prostitute and could be actively involved in protecting or touting for the prostitute. Parliamentarians described the ' bludger as ‘the most detestable wretch on the face of the earth’ and as a man ‘worthy of no respect whatsoever’ (NSWPD 31:1675).

(Australia, NZ, slang, derogatory) A person who avoids working, or doing their share of work, a loafer, a hanger-on, one who does not pull their weight.

* 2005 , , Parliamentary Debates: House of Representatives: Ofiicial Hansard , Volume 270, page 84,

If she is doing the work of two parents because her husband has died or left her or is violent and has driven her and the kids from home, then suddenly she is a bludger .