Definitions

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

  • adjective Of or relating to paralysis.
  • adjective Characteristic of or resembling paralysis.
  • adjective Affected with paralysis; paralyzed.
  • noun A person affected with paralysis.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Of, pertaining to, or of the nature of paralysis: as, paralytic affection.
  • Affected with paralysis or palsy; palsied; so constituted as to be subject to paralysis.
  • noun One who is affected with paralysis or palsy.

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

  • adjective Of or pertaining to paralysis; resembling paralysis.
  • adjective Affected with paralysis, or palsy.
  • adjective Inclined or tending to paralysis.
  • adjective (Physiol.) the fluid, generally thin and watery, secreted from a gland after section or paralysis of its nerves, as the paralytic saliva.
  • noun A person affected with paralysis.

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

  • noun Someone suffering from paralysis.
  • adjective Affected by paralysis, paralysed.
  • adjective Pertaining to paralysis.
  • adjective UK, Australia, Ireland Very drunk.

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

  • adjective relating to or of the nature of paralysis
  • noun a person suffering from paralysis
  • adjective affected with paralysis

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Ancient Greek παραλυτικός (paralytikos, "paralyzed").

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Examples

  • There are various types which have been called the paralytic, the choreic, and the saltatory.

    Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine 1896

  • There are various types which have been called the paralytic, the choreic, and the saltatory.

    Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine 1896

  • _ Tremor of old age consists of a perpetual trembling of the hands, or of the head, or of other muscles, when they are exerted; and is erroneously called paralytic; and seems owing to the small quantity of animal power residing in the muscular fibres.

    Zoonomia, Vol. II Or, the Laws of Organic Life Erasmus Darwin 1766

  • The resulting sickness, known as paralytic shellfish poisoning, can cause serious illness or death in humans who consume shellfish with toxic levels of red tide.

    BangorDailyNews.com > News 2009

  • However, Adam suffered from a rare form of the disorder called paralytic strabismus, in which the eye's misalignment results from paralysis of the muscles on one side of the eye.

    UCLA Newsroom: UCLA Newsroom 2008

  • However, some strains of Alexandrium tamarense produce very potent neurotoxins known as paralytic shellfish toxins (PSTs).

    Citizendium, the Citizens' Compendium - Recent changes [en] 2008

  • Peaslee had been asked to care for another inmate named John Doton, who was "paralytic" and had maggot-infested bedsores.

    The Poorhouse: Aunt Winnie, Glenn Beck, And The Politics Of The New Deal Arthur Delaney 2010

  • The "paralytic," of course, meaning the too much gin sometimes.

    Maggie: An Intimate Portrait of a Woman in Power 1990

  • It is true that even the great Dr. Johnson defined the word pastern as 'the knee of an horse,' an anatomical inexactitude which would produce on an ostler the same kind of paralytic shock that a sailor might experience on finding in the same famous work leeward and windward described in identical terms as 'toward the wind.'

    On Dictionaries 1969

  • It is true that even the great Dr. Johnson defined the word pastern as 'the knee of an horse,' an anatomical inexactitude which would produce on an ostler the same kind of paralytic shock that a sailor might experience on finding in the same famous work leeward and windward described in identical terms as 'toward the wind.'

    On Dictionaries 1924

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