decumbent
Americanadjective
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lying down; recumbent.
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Botany. (of stems, branches, etc.) lying or trailing on the ground with the extremity tending to ascend.
adjective
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lying down or lying flat
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botany (of certain stems) lying flat with the tip growing upwards
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of decumbent
1635–45; < Latin dēcumbent- (stem of dēcumbēns ), present participle of dēcumbere. See decubitus, -ent
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.
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
Culms erect or decumbent, 2° high; spikes 6–12, erect or ascending, 1–2´ long, forming a compound spike 3–6´ long; spikelets glabrous, very shortly pedicelled, oblong-lanceolate, nearly 2´´ long.—S.
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
Stems.—Much branched; ascending or decumbent; one to three feet long.
From The Wild Flowers of California: Their Names, Haunts, and Habits by Parsons, Mary Elizabeth
The stems are erect or slightly decumbent below, slender, rather compressed towards the base, leafy at the base, simple or branched, densely tufted and varying in length from 1 to 3 or 4 feet.
From A Handbook of Some South Indian Grasses by Rangachari, K.
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.
