bud — English Dictionary

bud
Pronunciations
  • /bʌd/

Noun

  1. A newly sprouted leaf or blossom that has not yet unfolded.

    Usage
    • Countable
    • Uncountable
    Synonyms
    Examples

    After a long, cold winter, the trees finally began to produce buds.

    Among Turks, pills consisting of hemp buds, muscat nuts, saffron, and honey were a popular aphrodisiac.

  2. Something that has begun to develop.

    Usage
    • Countable
    • Figurative
    • Uncountable
    Examples

    breast buds

  3. A small rounded body in the process of splitting from an organism, which may grow into a genetically identical new organism.

    Usage
    • Countable
    • Uncountable
    Examples

    In this slide, you can see a yeast cell forming buds.

  4. Potent cannabis taken from the flowering part of the plant (the "bud"), or marijuana generally. Cannabis that has been taken from the flowering part of the plant intended to be smoked.

    Usage
    • Australia
    • Canada
    • US usage
    • Countable
    • plural-normally
    • Slang
    • Uncountable
    • usually
    Synonyms
    Examples

    You got any buds?

  5. Potent cannabis taken from the flowering part of the plant (the "bud"), or marijuana generally. Marijuana.

    Usage
    • Australia
    • Canada
    • US usage
    • Slang
    • Uncountable
    • usually
    Synonyms
    Examples

    Hey bro, want to smoke some bud?

  6. A weaned calf in its first year, so called because the horns are then beginning to bud.

    Usage
    • Countable
    • Uncountable
  7. A pretty young girl.

    Usage
    • Countable
    • Dated
    • Uncountable
    Examples
    More examples (1)

    My pretty bud was unfolding and I was not there to see it. She was developing so rapidly, I felt I could not be from her a day without missing some sweetness that could never come again.

Verb

  1. To form buds.

    Usage
    • Intransitive
    Examples

    The trees are finally starting to bud.

    More examples (1)

    And it came to pass, that on the morrow Moses went into the tabernacle of witness; and, behold, the rod of Aaron for the house of Levi was budded, and brought forth buds, and bloomed blossoms, and yielded almonds.

  2. To reproduce by splitting off buds.

    Usage
    • Intransitive
    Examples

    Yeast reproduces by budding.

  3. To begin to grow, or to issue from a stock in the manner of a bud, as a horn.

    Usage
    • Intransitive
    Examples

    Seeds of dissent were budding among the recruits.

  4. To be like a bud in respect to youth and freshness, or growth and promise.

    Usage
    • Intransitive
    Examples

    Young budding virgin, fair and fresh and sweet, / Whither away, or where is thy abode?

  5. To put forth as a bud.

    Usage
    • Transitive
    Examples
    More examples (1)

    What appeared the same to us really wasn't. Every day was different, if we looked closely enough. Like the topiary tree that finally budded a rose after Terrence died: […]

    Once, he was put on a course of potent hormone pills, coming off them when he woke up one morning to discover he was budding breasts

  6. To graft by inserting a bud under the bark of another tree.

    Usage
    • Transitive

Noun

  1. Buddy, friend.

    Usage
    • Canada
    • US usage
    • Informal
    Examples

    I like to hang out with my buds on Saturday night.

    More examples (1)

    Anna's best bud, John (Malcolm Cumming), harbors a secret crush on her, which is indicative of the lazier, more derivative portions of the story that simply repeat tropes rather than comment on them.

  2. Synonym of guy, term of address for a man or person.

    Usage
    • Canada
    • Informal
    Examples

    [T]hen he shrugged his shoulders and said, with admirable philosophy: "Well, that's life, ain't it, bud?"

  3. Brother.

    Usage
    • Informal
    • Rare
    Examples

    So I'm walking along, minding my own business, right, and suddenly I found myself trapped in a nuclear family. Oh, they were all around me, mom, dad, bud, sis.

Noun

  1. a partially opened flower

    Broader terms
  2. a swelling on a plant stem consisting of overlapping immature leaves or petals

    Broader terms

Verb

  1. develop buds

    Broader terms
    Examples

    The hibiscus is budding!

  2. start to grow or develop

    Broader terms
    Examples

    a budding friendship

Word forms
budsbudsbuddingbuddedbudded

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