cross-fertile
Americanadjective
Etymology
Origin of cross-fertile
First recorded in 1925–30
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.
Oh, technically, biologically, of course, we were probably cross-fertile, but....
From Project Gutenberg
On the other hand all walnut, pecan, and hickory species are self-fertile and cross-fertile, but may be self-unfruitful because of dichogamy, because they may shed their pollen either before or after the stigmas of the pistillate flowers are receptive to it.
From Project Gutenberg
But the enthusiasm with which this applied result of Mendel's Law was at first hailed by biologists has gradually subsided; for it has been found that though these new forms will breed true under certain conditions, they are nevertheless cross-fertile with the original forms, and thus the circle can be completed back again by a return to the parent form, from which the new "species" can again be produced at will with the same mathematical exactness as before.
From Project Gutenberg
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.
