paralytic
/parəˈlɪtɪk
/adjective
1Relating to paralysis: the incidence of paralytic disease...
- Red tides, for example, can cause outbreaks of life-threatening diseases, such as paralytic shellfish poisoning, which can shut down mussel and clam harvesting for long periods of time.
- The mutations make it more transmissible and possibly more likely to cause paralytic disease than ordinary live vaccine-derived strains, according to the Health Department.
- Tetanus is an acute, spastic paralytic illness caused by a toxin released from the bacterium Clostridium tetani.
2 [predicative] British informal Extremely drunk: a leaving party which left everyone paralytic...
- The judge told him, ‘You were paralytic drunk and punched a perfectly decent man in the face.’
- He said excessive drinking was often glorified through the media and we had to change the current mindset that it was ‘a great laugh’ to persistently get paralytic drunk.
- Elizabeth was drunker than anybody that night - she was paralytic.
noun
A person affected by paralysis: I do not wish to live as a helpless paralytic...
- Almost all the seniors in these places are over 70 years old with a very weak physical condition and many are paralytics.
- Soon people were coming to see Him from as far as Canada who were suffering from every kind of disease and disorder: mental illness, epileptics, paralytics, and Joshua healed them all.
- As the number and size of state hospitals increased, however, overcrowded wards housed chronic cases: long-term schizophrenics, the senile, paralytics, and epileptics.
Derivatives
paralytically
- Passing sentence the judge told him: ‘I regard what occurred as a vicious act against a man who was paralytically drunk and at the time unable to defend himself.’
- This is an event in itself, as Horace is a) paralytically shy and b) has had the conversational urge beaten out of him by fifty five years of having B's mum talk over him.
- With a threat like that hanging over their heads it was no wonder that everyone was paralytically drunk by 8 o clock.
Origin
Late Middle English: from Old French paralytique, via Latin from Greek paralutikos 'relating to paralysis' (see paralysis).