I. -esiv, -sēv also -səv adjective
Etymology: Latin transgress us + English -ive
1. archaic : disposed or tending to transgress, violate, or go beyond a limit
2. : progressively overlapping or passing over or beyond
a suite of transgressive sediments
the deposits of transgressive seas
3.
a. : going beyond the limits set by the ancestral condition usually because of segregation and recombination of polygenic factors in the progeny of a hybrid
transgressive variation
transgressive inheritance
b. of a plant : being at different stages of the life history a part of more than one stratum of the community of which it is a member
• trans·gres·sive·ly -sə̇vlē, -li adverb
II. noun
( -s )
: a transgressive element of an ecological community