mindmap root((谄媚)) parasite applies to one who clings to a person of wealth, power, or influence or is useless to society: a jet-setter with the usual entourage of ~s. sycophant adds to this a strong suggestion of fawning, flattery, or adulation: a military dictator who would only listen to ~s. toady emphasizes the servility and snobbery of the self-seeker: the president's own ~ made others grovel. hanger-on usually contemptuous, refers to someone who habitually keeps company with or depends unduly on others for favor: kept tripping on her ~. leech stresses persistence in clinging to or bleeding another for one's own advantage: ~es who abandoned her when the money ran out. sponge stresses the parasitic laziness, dependence, opportunism, and pettiness of the cadger: her brother, a shiftless ~, often came by for a free meal.