sessile Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. adjective permanently attached to a substrate; not free to move about
    • sessile marine animals and plants
  2. adjective attached directly by the base; not having an intervening stalk
    stalkless.
    • sessile flowers
    • the shell of a sessile barnacle is attached directly to a substrate

WordNet

Ses"sile adjective
Etymology
L. sessilis low, dwarf, from sedere, sessum, to sit: cf. F. sessile.
Definitions
  1. Attached without any sensible projecting support.
  2. (Bot.) Resting directly upon the main stem or branch, without a petiole or footstalk; as, a sessile leaf or blossom.
  3. (Zoöl.) Permanently attached; -- said of the gonophores of certain hydroids which never became detached.

Webster 1913