a. [f. L. vīvipar-us (Appuleius), f. vīv-us alive, living + parĕre to bring forth: see -OUS. Cf. F. vivipare, Sp., Pg., It. viviparo.]
1. Involving the production of young in a living state.
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., III. xxi. 158. We cannot from them expect a viviparous exclusion.
1861. Hulme, trans. Moquin-Tandon, II. I. 48. This constitutes the viviparous reproduction of the Mammalia.
1890. Science-Gossip, XXVI. 259. This … corresponds to the viviparous habit in some fishes and reptiles.
2. Of animals: Bringing forth young in a live state. (Usually in contrast with oviparous.)
1651. Biggs, New Disp., ¶ 267. Quadrupedes … together with us are viviparous, and hitherto more familiar to us, then birds, fishes, and animals oviparous.
1668. Wilkins, Real Char., II. v. § 3. 133. Viviparous cartilagineous fish, whose bodies are not long and round.
1692. Bentley, Boyle Lect., 160. That uniform warmth, which is so necessary even in the incubation of birds, much more in the time of gestation of viviparous animals.
1768. G. White, Selborne, xvii. Though they [sc. vipers] are oviparous, yet they are viviparous also, hatching their young within their bellies, and then bringing them forth.
c. 1791. M. Cutler in Life, etc. (1888), I. 469. The Sea-anemone is said to be viviparous.
1827. G. Higgins, Celtic Druids, 138. The oviparous quadrupeds are found … in more ancient strata than those of the viviparous class.
1858. Lewes, Sea-side Stud., 249. The Pedicellina is viviparous, as well as oviparous, and gemmiparous.
1870. Rolleston, Anim. Life, p. xliii. The true Cetacea … are always viviparous.
b. With specific names.
1681. Grew, Musæum, I. V. i. 95. The Viviparous Eel-Pout…. ’Tis well pictur’d by Adam Oleareus, who calls it a Sea-Wolf.
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist. (1824), III. 11. The viviparous blenny … brings forth two or three hundred at a time, all alive.
1838. T. Bell, Brit. Reptiles, 17. Viviparous Lizard. Nimble Lizard. Common Lizard. 2ootoca vivipara.
1890. Cent. Dict. Perch,… 2. Any surf-fish or member of the Embiotocidæ: more fully called viviparous perch.
3. Bot. Reproducing from seeds or bulbs that germinate while still attached to the parent plant. Also in specific names.
1777. Lightfoot, Flora Scot., I. 101. Viviparous-Fescue-Grass.
1794. Paley, Nat. Theol., xx. (1819), 322. Grasses abound which are viviparous and consequently able to propagate themselves without seed.
1812. New Bot. Garden, I. 58. The pericarps viviparous.
1846–50. A. Wood, Class-bk. Bot., 475. Polygonum viviparum, Viviperous [sic] Bistort.
1855. Delamer, Kitchen Garden (1861), 48. A few roots [of Rocambole] may be allowed standing-room as a curiosity, and as examples of viviparous plants.
1889. A. R. Wallace, Darwinism (1890), 24. The buttercup is replaced by the little poisonous yellow oxalis with its viviparous buds.
b. Characterized by this mode of reproduction.
1802. R. Hall, Elem. Bot., 196. Viviparous Fructification,… when the rudiment of the germen grows out into leaves.
1906. Athenæum, 12 May, 581. The viviparous habit, now represented by the seedling hanging from the mangrove, was once nearly universal.
Hence Viviparousness.
1855. Spencer, Princ. Psychol., I. IV. vii. 575. Creatures having large brains were seen to have other characteristics than that of intelligence: as … viviparousness.
