These words refer to someone who attaches himself to someone else in order to gain a portion of the latter’s money, goods or advantages. Parasite and leech both call to mind biological organisms that attach themselves physically to a host as a source of nourishment, often harming the host’s health or causing death. Parasite is the generic term for all such forms of life; leech refers specifically to a bloodsucking worm that acts in this way. As might be suspected from this, parasite is the vaguer of the two words when the reference is to people, and leech the more pejorative. Parasite can refer to the draining-off of any sort of benefits from someone else: a gigolo who had lived as a parasite off rich old melancholy women; a real parasite when it came to humming cigarettes from his fellow office workers. The word can suggest a weak, spineless sort of person who gains another’s confidence by hypocrisy or subterfuge. Leech , by contrast, is much harsher in its disapproval and indicates both a more ravening and more tenacious approach: leeches who clung fast to him while there was the slightest advantage to be obtained from his prodigality; such a leech that his patron was driven into bankruptcy.

Freeloader and sponger are more informal than the previous pair and suggest a more hit-and-miss approach to gaining benefits from others. Freeloader , the most informal of these words, suggests someone who makes himself easily available to partake of someone else’s hospitality, with no thought of ever returning it. The word is particularly suggestive of the hasty and voluminous dispatch of someone else’s food and drink: a freeloader who invited himself to dinner three or four times before we woke up to him; freeloaders at the party who found the host’s expensive Scotch and made short work of it. Sponger refers to a person with any sort of gain in mind; the word may be especially suggestive of an inveterate borrower who doesn’t return borrowed items, or of a person in a public place who ingratiates himself to get free drink or food: fearing that borrowing a cup of sugar would make her new neighbour think she was a sponger ; King’s Cross spongers adept at getting Americans to buy them endless rounds of drinks. As can be seen, the word need not imply a permanent relationship; it is less severe in its criticism than freeloader and certainly less so than the previous words. Cadger is close in meaning to sponger but denotes a pettier, more begging attitude on the part of the borrower: He cadged a free ride to the office every morning; cadging a few dollars from his old, widowed mother.

In its original meaning, bludger referred to a man who lived on the earnings of a harlot; time and usage have softened the word to mean no more than a man who takes profit without effort – and usually to the detriment of another person: a bludger who spends most of his time at the races while his wife goes out to work. Bludger is not so clinging in its connotation as parasite or leech , but is harsher in condemnation than freeloader or sponger . In many contexts bludger simply means loafer, as much as one prepared to let other provide for him.

Hanger-on is the mildest of these words, suggesting someone who has formed a more lasting relationship with his host. Rather than snatch at benefits, the hanger-on may simply wait timidly for benefits as they are offered: a hanger-on who seemed always to the present, as though in hopes of getting some dropped scrap of affection; hangers-on who were content to flatter him in exchange for the lavish parties he gave.