(of an aquatic animal) not attached to an object or substrate and able to swim freely.
Example sentencesExamples
The free-swimming tadpoles produced by sexual reproduction live only a few days, during which time they can be spread by tidal and storm currents to form new colonies.
The eggs of most frogs hatch into aquatic, free-swimming larvae, commonly known as tadpoles.
There are more than a thousand described species of golden algae, most of them free-swimming and unicellular, but there are filamentous and colonial forms.
A free-swimming roundworm thus looks rather like it is thrashing about aimlessly.
These are miniature jaw-like structures that come from a free-swimming worm-like animal, actually more closely related to fishes than to any of the other invertebrates.
Definition of free-swimming in US English:
free-swimming
adjectiveˌfrēˈswimiNG
Zoology
(of an aquatic animal) not attached to an object or substrate and able to swim freely.
Example sentencesExamples
A free-swimming roundworm thus looks rather like it is thrashing about aimlessly.
The eggs of most frogs hatch into aquatic, free-swimming larvae, commonly known as tadpoles.
The free-swimming tadpoles produced by sexual reproduction live only a few days, during which time they can be spread by tidal and storm currents to form new colonies.
These are miniature jaw-like structures that come from a free-swimming worm-like animal, actually more closely related to fishes than to any of the other invertebrates.
There are more than a thousand described species of golden algae, most of them free-swimming and unicellular, but there are filamentous and colonial forms.