Definitions

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

  • adjective Living in fresh water but migrating to marine waters to breed. Used of fish.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Running down; descending: applied to certain fishes which descend streams to the sea to spawn: opposed to anadromous.
  • In botany, having the first set of nerves (in each segment of a fern frond) given off on the basal side of the midrib, as in Osmunda. Compare anadromous .

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

  • adjective (Bot.) Having the lowest inferior segment of a pinna nearer the rachis than the lowest superior one; -- said of a mode of branching in ferns, and opposed to anadromous.
  • adjective (Zoöl.) Living in fresh water, and going to the sea to spawn; -- opposed to anadromous, and said of the eel.

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

  • adjective of a migratory fish that lives in fresh water and breeds in the sea
  • adjective botany Of a fern in which the first veins in a frond segment are produced towards the base of the frond.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective migrating from fresh water to the sea to spawn

Etymologies

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Examples

  • The reverse occurs with catadromous species, such as the eel (Anguilla anguilla), which spawns at sea.

    Conservation of arctic ecosystems and species 2009

  • Most arctic diadromous species are actually anadromous (i.e., use estuarine and/or marine environments for feeding and rearing; and freshwater environments for spawning, early life history, and, in the case of most arctic species, overwintering); only freshwater eels (Anguillidae) and some lampreys (Petromyzontidae) are catadromous (i.e., breed at sea and rear in freshwater).

    Effects of climate change on arctic anadromous fish 2009

  • I think the way Fish phrases his catadromous "position" on superdelegates is typical of both Fish and Althouse.

    "The difference between making arguments and analyzing them is not always recognized, and ... readers get outraged about things I never said." Ann Althouse 2008

  • The catadromous American eel may also be found in the area.

    Chesapeake Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, Maryland 2007

  • It is a catadromous species, meaning it lives primarily in fresh water and when the monsoon comes to the Top End this is what we call the Northern most reaches of Australia, the fish migrate to salt water in order to spawn.

    Archive 2006-08-01 2006

  • It is a catadromous species, meaning it lives primarily in fresh water and when the monsoon comes to the Top End this is what we call the Northern most reaches of Australia, the fish migrate to salt water in order to spawn.

    At My Table 2006

  • It's the catadromous lifestyle that gives eels their profound weirdness.

    NYT > Home Page By PAUL GREENBERG 2010

  • It's the catadromous lifestyle that gives eels their profound weirdness.

    NYT > Home Page By PAUL GREENBERG 2010

  • A new catadromous sme software anti gaea programma pay as you go foretoken, reverent anaplasty backstairs, low escort and appealing borago on infarction.

    Rational Review 2009

Comments

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  • It’s deep sea that makes a shad amorous

    But love misapplied is calamitous.

    How bad must she feel

    To fall for an eel

    Then learn that her lover’s catadromous.

    December 5, 2018

  • This is very good.

    December 5, 2018

  • She probably got catfished.

    December 5, 2018

  • *Doffs his hat.*

    December 5, 2018