a. and sb. [f. EPIZO-ON (or its elements) + -IC.]
A. adj. a. Of or pertaining to epizoa. b. Of plants: Living upon animals.
1857. Berkeley, Cryptog. Bot., 235. Fungi were defined as hysterophytal or epiphytal mycetals, (more rarely epizoic or inhabitants of inorganic substances).
1877. Huxley, Anat. Inv. Anim., vi. 276. Argulus, the parasite so common on the Stickleback,… one of the most curious modifications of the epizoic type.
transf. 1872. O. W. Holmes, Poet Breakf.-t., vi. 179. Our epizoic literature is becoming so extensive that [etc.].
B. sb. An epizootic disease; = EPIZOOTIC B.
1879. Jefferies, Wild Life in S. Co., 186. A kind of epizoic seems to seize them [little mice], and they die in numbers.
