free-swimming
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of free-swimming
First recorded in 1890–95
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.
"This suggests that they are detecting the particle motion associated with sound even at considerable distances from the source -- something we have not previously been able to demonstrate in free-swimming sharks."
From Science Daily ● Sep. 30, 2026
“Observations of free-swimming newborn white sharks are extremely rare,” says Tobey Curtis, a shark scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration who was not involved in the research.
From Science Magazine ● Jan. 29, 2024
Living throughout the world’s temperate and tropical seas, stalked barnacles begin life as free-swimming larvae that ride ocean currents until they settle, often en masse, on driftwood, a ship’s hull, or other floating objects.
From National Geographic ● Aug. 23, 2023
But unlike most others in that group, it does not undergo metamorphosis from a free-swimming larva to a fixed-to-the-bottom, or sessile, adult.
From Scientific American ● Feb. 3, 2022
It was the charm of a free-swimming existence that divorced him from a vegetarian diet.
From "Wee Tim'rous Beasties" Studies of Animal life and Character by Douglas English
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.
