Definition of "sessile" [ses•sile]

• Botany Stalkless and attached directly at the base: sessile leaves. (adjective)
• Zoology Permanently attached or fixed; not free-moving: a sessile barnacle. (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.

• "The ganglia had already finished migrating to three new positions, repeating the same spherical configuration each time, before Richard recognized that what was growing in the sessile was a manna melon."
• "Perhaps, Richard mused, the sessile is a recording device only, and is incapable of imagination."
• "They may be sessile, that is, the cup rests immediately on the ground or wood, or leaves, or they may possess a short, or rather long stalk."