# bud

Pronunciation: say "BUD" /bʌd/

## Noun

1. A leaf or flower that has just sprouted and has not yet unfolded.
   - Simple: A new leaf or flower on a plant before it opens.
   - _Tiny buds appeared on the apple tree after the first warm week of spring._
   - _She cut the peony while it was still in bud so it would open in the vase._
2. A friend; a buddy. *(colloquial, Canada, US)*
   - Simple: A friend or buddy.
   - _We've been buds since college, and he still calls me every week._
   - _She brought her best bud along to the concert._
4. Something that is just beginning to grow or take shape.
   - Simple: Something that has only just started to grow or develop.
   - _Her early sketches held the bud of the style that later made her famous._
   - _The manager nipped the rumor in the bud with a frank email to the staff._
5. Cannabis taken from the flowering parts of the plant and meant for smoking; also, marijuana in general. *(slang, Australia, Canada, US)*
   - Simple: Dried flowers of the cannabis plant that people smoke, or marijuana in general.
   - _He kept a jar of buds hidden on the top shelf of his closet._
   - _The dispensary sells bud by the gram._
6. A guy; also a casual word for addressing a man or any person directly. *(colloquial, Canada)*
   - Simple: A guy, or a casual name to call a man or anyone you are talking to.
   - _Thanks for the lift, bud. I owe you one._
   - _Some bud at the rink lent me his skates for the game._
7. A small rounded body that is splitting off from an organism and may grow into a new, genetically identical organism.
   - Simple: A small round growth that splits off a living thing and can become an exact copy of it.
   - _Under the microscope, a tiny bud was pinching off from the yeast cell._
   - _The bud on the side of the hydra will soon break free and live as a separate animal._

## Verb

3. To form buds, as a tree or other plant does.
   - Simple: To start growing buds.
   - _In a mild year the lilacs bud weeks ahead of schedule._
   - _By late March the oaks along the river were budding._
8. To reproduce by forming buds that split away from the parent organism.
   - Simple: To make new living things by growing small parts that break off.
   - _Yeast cells bud rapidly in warm, sugary dough._
   - _In the warm tank the hydras budded quickly, and within weeks there were dozens of them._
9. To graft a plant by inserting one of its buds under the bark of another tree.
   - Simple: To join two trees by putting a bud from one under the bark of the other.
   - _The nursery budded the young apple trees in late August._
   - _Growers bud the peach variety onto hardy rootstock so that it survives cold winters._
10. To begin to grow, or to sprout from a base in the way a bud does, as a horn does.
   - Simple: To start to grow, or to push out from something the way a bud does, like a horn.
   - _Tiny horns were just budding on the calf's head._
   - _After the second meeting, doubts began to bud among the volunteers._
11. To put something out in the form of a bud.
   - Simple: To grow something out as a bud.
   - _After years of neglect, the old rosebush finally budded a single white flower._
   - _Every spring the bare branches bud tiny pink blossoms almost overnight._
12. To be like a bud in being young and fresh, or in growing and showing promise.
   - Simple: To be young and fresh, or growing and full of promise, like a bud.
   - _A budding scientist, she spent every weekend building circuits in the garage._
   - _The town's budding arts scene now fills three galleries on Main Street._

## Noun

13. An affectionate term for a pretty young girl. *(dated)*
   - Simple: A loving name for a pretty young girl.
   - _“You look lovely, my sweet bud,” her father said as she came down the stairs._
   - _The old sailor called his granddaughter his bud and carried her picture everywhere._

## Other meanings

- (noun) A weaned calf less than a year old, so called because its horns are just starting to sprout at that age.

## Origin

**Meanings 1, 3–5, 7–13** — From Middle English budde ("bud, seed pod"), from Proto-Germanic *buddǭ (compare Dutch bot, "bud", and regional German Butzen, "seed pod"), perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *bʰew-, *bu- ("to swell").
**Meanings 2, 6** — A back-formation from buddy.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/bud (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).