caducous

[kuh-doo-kuh s, -dyoo-]

adjective

Botany. dropping off very early, as leaves.
Zoology. subject to shedding.
transitory; perishable.

Origin of caducous

1675–85; < Latin cadūcus unsteady, perishable, equivalent to cad(ere) to fall + -ūcus adj. suffix; see -ous

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for caducous

Historical Examples of caducous

Flowers yellow, in racemes, with caducous bracts and bractlets.
The Medicinal Plants of the Philippines
T. H. Pardo de Tavera
Caducous, ka-dū′kus, adj. falling early, as leaves or flowers.
Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 1 of 4: A-D)
Various
Stipules between the opposite and compound leaves (but they are caducous).
The Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States
Asa Gray
Leaves alternate, compound, digitate, caducous; leaflets 5–7 with long common petiole.
The Medicinal Plants of the Philippines
T. H. Pardo de Tavera
Achenes short and thick, compressed or turgid, truncate, glabrous; pappus of 2–8 caducous awns.
The Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States
Asa Gray

British Dictionary definitions for caducous

caducous

adjective

biology (of parts of a plant or animal) shed during the life of the organism

Word Origin for caducous

C17: from Latin cadūcus falling, from cadere to fall

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

caducous in Science

caducous

[kə-dōō′kəs]

Detaching or dropping off at an early stage of development. The gills of most amphibians and the sepals or stipules of certain plants are caducous.