self-sown

[ self-sohn ]

adjective

sown by itself, or without human or animal agency, as of a plant grown from seeds dropped from another plant.
sown by any agency other than humans, as of a plant grown from seeds scattered by birds or the wind.

Origin of self-sown

First recorded in 1600–10

Words Nearby self-sown

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use self-sown in a sentence

Said of introduced plants which are reproducing by self-sown seeds.
Michigan Trees | Charles Herbert Otis
This was cut at its best marketable maturity, and the present young wood is made of what came up self-sown.
Wood and Garden | Gertrude Jekyll
For the fruit of mere lust comes to naught, even as corn, self-sown out of season, ripens not.
Outlines of Zui Creation Myths | Frank Hamilton Cushing
They found there self-sown wheat-fields where there were lowlands, and grapevines wherever hills showed themselves.
The Chautauquan, Vol. III, January 1883 | The Chautauquan Literary and Scientific Circle
The desolation of that garden, choked with weeds and a wild growth of self-sown crops, is indescribable.
Kitchener's Mob | James Norman Hall

British Dictionary definitions for self-sown

self-sown

adjective

(of plants) growing from seed dispersed by any means other than by the agency of man or animals: Also: self-seeded

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

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