decumbent

American  

[dih-kuhm-buhnt] / dɪˈkʌm bənt /

adjective

1. lying down; recumbent.

2. Botany. (of stems, branches, etc.) lying or trailing on the ground with the extremity tending to ascend.

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decumbent British  

/ dɪˈkʌmbənt /

adjective

1. lying down or lying flat

2. botany (of certain stems) lying flat with the tip growing upwards

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Other Word Forms

• decumbence noun
• decumbency noun
• decumbently adverb

Etymology

Origin of decumbent

1635–45; < Latin dēcumbent- (stem of dēcumbēns ), present participle of dēcumbere. See decubitus, -ent

Example Sentences

Most arrived more or less by acceptable means, but the suburban affliction defined as "a grass with creeping or decumbent stems which root freely at the nodes" sneaked in.

From Time Magazine Archive

The root of the hoary, decumbent, and less elegant, but larger-flowered Hedysarum mackenzii is poisonous, and nearly killed an old Indian woman at Fort Simpson, who had mistaken it for that of the preceding species.

From "Into the Wild" by Jon Krakauer

These are tall leafy slender perennial grasses, with branching stems erect or geniculately ascending from a creeping or decumbent base.

From A Handbook of Some South Indian Grasses by Rangachari, K.

Low, much branched and decumbent; leaves narrowly obovate-oblong, contracted at the base, thin; petals linear-oblong; styles 2, very short; pod flat.—Nantucket; pine barrens of N. J. to S. Ill.,

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

Plant prostrate or decumbent; seed about 1.5 mm. broad Pigweed, Amaranthus blitoides. 2b.

From The Plants of Michigan Simple Keys for the Identification of the Native Seed Plants of the State by Gleason, Henry Allan