Definition of "free-living" [free•-liv•ing•free-living]

• Given to self-indulgence. (adjective)
• Biology Living independently of another organism; not part of a parasitic or symbiotic relationship. (adjective)
• Biology Moving independently; not sessile. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Even terms such as wildlife are dismissed as insulting to the animals concerned -- who should instead be known as 'free-living,' the academics, including an Oxford professor, suggest."
• "You remember how Stevens passed out last year — free-living and easy, everybody's friend but his own."
• "Most impressive was the prediction that a free-living transposon homologous to RAG would exist."