Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Given to self-indulgence.
- adj. Biology Living independently of another organism; not part of a parasitic or symbiotic relationship.
- adj. Biology Moving independently; not sessile.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. Full gratification of the appetite.
- Living in a free or unrestrained manner.
- In biology, living free from and independent of the parent, as a medusa-bud separated from the polyp-stock upon which it grew.
Wiktionary
- adj. biology (of an organism) That lives independently of other organisms rather than part of a symbiotic or parasitic relationship
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. Unrestrained indulgence of the appetites as a way of life.
- adj. (Biology) Living independently of other organisms; not parasitic or commensal.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a lifestyle given to easy indulgence of the appetites
- adj. not parasitic on another organism
Examples
“Even terms such as wildlife are dismissed as insulting to the animals concerned -- who should instead be known as 'free-living,' the academics, including an Oxford professor, suggest.”
“You remember how Stevens passed out last year — free-living and easy, everybody's friend but his own.”
“Most impressive was the prediction that a free-living transposon homologous to RAG would exist.”
“Moreover, almost all free-living animals are host to one or more parasite taxa.”
“With inimitable style, Lovelace describes a stomach as “flopping like a halibut in an ice chest,” and rain falling on a roof “like a giant herd of tiny, tiny horses running circles of free-living gallop.””
“Mitochondria started out as free-living, oxygen-consuming bacteria that somehow became residents in our single-celled ancestors.”
“But there is no single currency by which we can measure the benefit of saving human lives against the cost of destroying forests that provide the last remaining refuges for free-living chimpanzees, orangutans or Sumatran tigers.”
The Wall Street Journal: Does Helping the Planet Hurt the Poor?
“Herds of mixed age and sex, varying in size from 100 to 10000 animals, are free-living and range in natural mountain pasture all year round.”
“It was the free-living Franklin who drew the inspiration for the federal union from the Iroquois Confederacy, still history's longest-lived democracy.”
The Huffington Post: Harvey Wasserman: Glenn Beck Could Happen Here
“Carl Woese who claim that free-living ancestors may have originated a few times instead of just once, or pathetically backpedaling to pander to the big tent.”
Another really dumb poll question about evolution - The Panda's Thumb
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