Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Zoology Reproducing freely by means of buds and side branches, as corals do.
  • adjective Botany Freely producing buds or offshoots, especially from unusual places, as shoots from flowers or fruits from fruits.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Bearing offspring.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective (Bot.) Bearing offspring; -- applied to a flower from within which another is produced, or to a branch or frond from which another rises, or to a plant which is reproduced by buds or gemmæ.
  • adjective Producing young by budding.
  • adjective Producing sexual zooids by budding; -- said of the blastostyle of a hydroid.
  • adjective Producing a cluster of branchlets from a larger branch; -- said of corals.
  • adjective (Med.) a cyst that produces highly-organized or even vascular structures.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective producing many offspring; prolific or proliferative
  • adjective botany producing many buds or offshoots from leaves or flowers
  • adjective zoology reproducing by budding

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[From Medieval Latin prōlifer : Latin prōlēs, prōl-, offspring; see al- in Indo-European roots + Latin -fer, -fer.]

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Examples

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  • In zoology, reproducing freely by means of buds and side branches, as corals do. In botany, freely producing buds or offshoots, especially from unusual places, such as shoots from flowers or fruits from fruits.

    November 19, 2007