caducous
Americanadjective
-
Botany. dropping off very early, as leaves.
-
Zoology. subject to shedding.
adjective
Etymology
Origin of caducous
First recorded in 1675–85 for obsolete sense; 1805–10 for current senses; from Latin cadūcus “unsteady, perishable,” equivalent to cad(ere) “to fall” + -ūcus adjective suffix ( see -ous)
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
They invariably come laden with words that seem meant to prove his vocabulary is bigger than yours: flocculent, crapulent, caducous, anaglypta, mephitic, velutinous.
From New York Times ● Oct. 1, 2020
P. convex, then exp. or depr., whitish tinged fawn at disc, covered with fawn adpr. fibrillose scales; g. broad, free yellowish-white; s. whitish, base swollen, ring cottony, caducous; flesh white, brick-red then brownish when broken.
From European Fungus Flora: Agaricaceae by Massee, George
Flowers white, small, in terminal umbel-like clusters from large scaly buds; bracts or scales thin and caducous.
From The Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States Including the District East of the Mississippi and North of North Carolina and Tennessee by Gray, Asa
The first and the second glumes are unequal, persistent or separately caducous.
From A Handbook of Some South Indian Grasses by Rangachari, K.
He is exceedingly well formed and graceful; his horns are not so large as those of the stag, but, like his, they are annually caducous, falling off in the winter and returning in the spring.
From The Hunters' Feast Conversations Around the Camp Fire by Reid, Mayne
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
