phage

[feyj] /feɪdʒ/

noun

Origin

by shortening, or independent use of -phage

-phage

a combining form meaning “a thing that devours,” used in the formation of compound words, especially the names of phagocytes:

macrophage.

Also, -phag.

Compare phago-, -phagous, -phagy.

Origin

noun use of Greek -phagos -phagous

Examples from the web for phage

Perhaps they could also use this to find a target unique to all strains of staph and then engineer a phage to exploit it.
To identify a specific tag for nerves, her team used a technique called phage display.
If the phage can grow, then those million bacteria will die.
Often it acquires a resistance gene, say from a handy plasmid absorbed during conjugation, or from a traveling phage.

British Dictionary definitions for phage

phage

/feɪdʒ/

noun

short for bacteriophage

-phage

combining form

indicating something that eats or consumes something specified: bacteriophage

Derived Forms

-phagous, combining_form:in_adjective

Word Origin

from Greek -phagos; see phago-

Word Origin and History for phage

virus that destroys bacteria, 1917, an abbreviated form of bacteriophage.

-phage

word-forming element meaning "eater," from stem of Greek phagein "to eat" (see -phagous).

phage in Medicine

phage (fāj)
n.
See bacteriophage.

-phage suff.
One that eats: macrophage.

phage in Technology

A program that modifies other programs or databases in unauthorised ways; especially one that propagates a virus or Trojan horse. See also worm, mockingbird. The analogy, of course, is with phage viruses in biology.
[Jargon File]