-trophicsuff.1. Of, relating to, or characterized by a specified kind of nutrition or sustenance: auxotrophic.2. Maintaining the function of or regulating a specified gland or type of tissue: gonadotrophic.[From trophic. Sense 2, influenced by -tropic.]American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.troph?ic (?tr?f ?k, ?tro? f?k) adj. of or pertaining to nutrition; involving nutritive processes: a trophic disease. [1870?75;