Definitions

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

  • adjective Lying face down; prone.
  • adjective Botany Trailing along the ground but not rooting.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Lying down or on the face; prone.
  • In botany, trailing; prostrate; unable to support itself, and therefore lying on the ground, but without putting forth roots: as, a procumbent stem.
  • In anatomy and zoology, directed forward and slightly upward: contrasted with decumbent.

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

  • adjective Lying down, or on the face; prone.
  • adjective (Bot.) Lying on the ground, but without putting forth roots; trailing; prostrate.

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

  • adjective prone or prostrate
  • adjective botany That trails along the ground

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

  • adjective having stems that trail along the ground without putting down roots

Etymologies

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

[Latin prōcumbēns, prōcumbent-, present participle of prōcumbere, to bend down : prō-, forward; see pro– + -cumbere, to lie down.]

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Examples

  • In archaeopterygids for example, the premaxillary teeth are more peg-like and more procumbent than are the other teeth.

    The war on parasites: an oviraptorosaur’s eye view Darren Naish 2006

  • In Caudipteryx, four procumbent teeth are present in each premaxilla, but the rest of the skull is edentulous.

    The war on parasites: an oviraptorosaur’s eye view Darren Naish 2006

  • The somewhat similar Omnivoropteryx, also from the Jiufutang Formation, was also short-skulled, and also has just a few procumbent teeth restricted to the premaxillae (Czerkas & Ji 2002).

    Archive 2006-07-01 Darren Naish 2006

  • The unusual long-armed Sapeornis, also from the Jiufutang Formation, had a rather short, Caudipteryx-like skull, and short, conical, unserrated, procumbent teeth projected from its premaxillae (Zhou & Zhang 2003).

    The war on parasites: an oviraptorosaur’s eye view Darren Naish 2006

  • In Caudipteryx, four procumbent teeth are present in each premaxilla, but the rest of the skull is edentulous.

    Archive 2006-07-01 Darren Naish 2006

  • In archaeopterygids for example, the premaxillary teeth are more peg-like and more procumbent than are the other teeth.

    Archive 2006-07-01 Darren Naish 2006

  • The major recent invasion there by procumbent pearlwort required an eradication program during 1999-2000 and the weed will need monitoring and containment for several years.

    Gough Island Wildlife Reserve, United Kingdom 2008

  • Only four alien species are widespread on the island, but the integrity of the ecosystem has recently been threatened by the invasion of an alien groundcover, procumbent pearlwort Sagina procumbens.

    Gough Island Wildlife Reserve, United Kingdom 2008

  • The unusual long-armed Sapeornis, also from the Jiufutang Formation, had a rather short, Caudipteryx-like skull, and short, conical, unserrated, procumbent teeth projected from its premaxillae (Zhou & Zhang 2003).

    Archive 2006-07-01 Darren Naish 2006

  • The somewhat similar Omnivoropteryx, also from the Jiufutang Formation, was also short-skulled, and also has just a few procumbent teeth restricted to the premaxillae (Czerkas & Ji 2002).

    The war on parasites: an oviraptorosaur’s eye view Darren Naish 2006

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