I. ri-ˈse-siv adjective
Date: circa 1673
1.
a. : tending to recede
b. : withdrawn 2
2.
a. : producing little or no phenotypic effect when occurring in heterozygous condition with a contrasting allele
recessive genes
b. : expressed only when the determining gene is in the homozygous condition
recessive traits
a recessive disease
• re·ces·sive·ly adverb
• re·ces·sive·ness noun
II. noun
Date: 1900
1. : an organism possessing one or more recessive characters
2. : a recessive character or gene