mushroom
Pluralmushrooms
Verbmushrooms, mushrooming, mushroomed
Pluralmushrooms
Formsmushrooms, mushrooming, mushroomed
- 1
- 2The common white or brown kind of fungus sold in stores and used in cooking.
I sliced a mushroom and put it on my pizza.
He fried some mushrooms with garlic and butter.
- 3Looking or acting like a mushroom, in shape, color, fast growth, or feel.
The new building has a strange mushroom shape, wide on top and thin below.
My little brother has a short, round mushroom haircut.
UsagePut it before a noun: a mushroom cloud. For shape after a verb, say mushroom-shaped.
- 4To grow very fast and become much bigger, or to spread quickly.
Like a balloon that gets big very fast when you blow into it.
The small club mushroomed into a national movement.
Costs can mushroom if you don't plan carefully.
Similarboom, explode, burgeon, balloon, skyrocket
Oppositeshrink, dwindle, decline
Note
Less common meanings
- 5Short for mushroom cloud. The tall, mushroom-shaped cloud that rises after a powerful explosion.
After the blast, a huge mushroom rose over the desert.
Witnesses watched the mushroom climb miles into the sky.
UsageSay mushroom cloud if readers might think you mean the fungus.
- 6To go out into woods or fields to collect wild mushrooms.
Like going fishing, but you search for mushrooms instead of fish.
We went mushrooming after the rain and filled two baskets.
My aunt loves mushrooming in the fall.
UsageSay go mushrooming: we went mushrooming in the woods.
Similarforage
- 7To spread out at the end into a shape like a mushroom, as a bullet does when it hits something.
Like clay squashing wider at the top when you push down on it.
The hot metal began to mushroom under the heavy blows.
The end of the old post had mushroomed from years of pounding.
Note
- 8A person who suddenly rises from a low place in life to a high one.
Like a weed that shoots up tall overnight where nothing stood before.
The old families sneered at the young mushroom who had bought the manor.
Several mushrooms rose to fortune during the war and bought their way into society.
Note
- 9A thing that grows very fast or suddenly shows up out of nowhere.
The craze [hula hoops] began in the U.S.A., and in October the boom crossed the Atlantic and 40 firms sprang into being, some being overnight mushrooms.
1971, Gwen White, Antique Toys And Their Background - 10A concrete post with a wider top, built to hold up a flat floor or roof.
- 11A small mushroom-shaped peg used in the game of bar billiards.
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Origin
It comes through Middle English and Old French, and probably goes back to a word for "moss," because the name first referred to a fungus that grows in moss.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 3 facts
- The word comes through Middle English and Old French. en.wiktionary.org
- The word probably ultimately derives from a word meaning moss. en.wikipedia.org
- The proposed connection concerns the name first applying to a fungus that grows in moss, not where the fungus first grew. en.wiktionary.org