Definition of "free-swimming" [free•-swim•ming]

• Able to swim freely; not sessile or attached: the free-swimming larva of the oyster. (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.

• "Fish with fins and scales are generally free-swimming and are found primarily in healthy, flowing water."
• "Their larvae are free-swimming and NOT radially symmetrical."
• "It wasn't until people started to look at them closely that they saw that they were actually animals – they had free-swimming young and they digested."