plantlikeadj.

1567 J. Maplet Greene Forest f. 26 So long is he plantlike.

1611 R. Cotgrave Dict. French & Eng. Tongues Vegetal, vegetall, hauing or giuing a (plant-like) life, increase,..or growing.

1673 H. Oldenburg Let. 18 Nov. in Corr. (1975) X. 363 I was commanded to return you the hearty thanks of ye Company for yr constant and unwearied communications, and particularly for this excellent account of Plant-like figur'd Stones.

1755 J. Ellis in Philos. Trans. 1754 (Royal Soc.) 48 633 Those..corallines, which I call celliferous, from their having rows of cells dispos'd in plant-like ramifications.

1843 M. Fuller in Dial July 42 His song, tended to reinstate a plant-like gentleness in the development of energy.

1888 G. Rolleston & W. H. Jackson Forms Animal Life (ed. 2) Introd. 20 Nutrition becomes holophytic or completely plantlike.

1941 R. Headstrom Adventures with Microscope liii. 208 Their sporangia and cellulose-walled spores are entirely plant-like, and it is for this reason that they are generally considered as plants.

1962 Science 6 Apr. 26/1 If plantlike organisms have solved the problem of growth in the Martian environment so well, one might surely expect to find mobile forms comparable to our animals that feed on plants.

2001 O. Sacks Uncle Tungsten vii. 68 This produced not crystals but twisted, plantlike growths in the water-glass.