bud
/bʌd/ noun, verb, proper noun
- noun A newly sprouted leaf or blossom that has not yet unfolded. “After a long, cold winter, the trees finally began to produce buds.”
- noun (figuratively) Something that has begun to develop. “breast buds”
- noun A small rounded body in the process of splitting from an organism, which may grow into a genetically identical new organism. “In this slide, you can see a yeast cell forming buds.”
- noun (US, Canada, Australia, slang, usually in the plural) Cannabis that has been taken from the flowering part of the plant intended to be smoked. “You got any buds?”
- noun (US, Canada, Australia, slang, uncountable) Marijuana. “Hey bro, want to smoke some bud?”
- noun A weaned calf in its first year, so called because the horns are then beginning to bud.
- noun (dated, term of endearment) A pretty young girl.
- verb (intransitive) To form buds. “The trees are finally starting to bud.”
- verb (intransitive) To reproduce by splitting off buds. “Yeast reproduces by budding.”
- verb (intransitive) To begin to grow, or to issue from a stock in the manner of a bud, as a horn. “Seeds of dissent were budding among the recruits.”
- verb (intransitive) To be like a bud in respect to youth and freshness, or growth and promise.
- verb (transitive) To put forth as a bud.
- verb (transitive) To graft by inserting a bud under the bark of another tree.
- noun (informal, Canada, US) Buddy, friend. “I like to hang out with my buds on Saturday night.”
- noun (informal, chiefly Canada) Synonym of guy, term of address for a man or person.
- noun (informal, rare) Brother.
- proper noun A male nickname. “I remember many visits from my uncle Bud.”
- proper noun (rare, chiefly Southern US) A male given name from English.
- proper noun (informal) A Budweiser beer. “I'd like a Bud, please.”
- proper noun (stock ticker symbol) AB InBev
Synonyms
budset nug marijuana bhang benj boo broccoli buddha cannabis cheeba choof daccha dank devil's lettuce djamba doja doobage dope endo gage
Etymology
From Middle English budde, bodde (“bud, seed pod”), from Old English *budde, from Proto-West Germanic *buʀdā, from Proto-Germanic *buzdǭ (compare archaic German Butte (“rosehip”), Swedish dialect bodd (“head”)), perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *bʰew-, *bu- (“to swell”). Compare also German Low German Butte, Butt (“bud”), Dutch bot (“bud”), regional German Butz, Butzen (“seed pod; apple core”), German Low German Haagbutt ("rosehip"; Haagbudden (“rosehips”, plural)).
Back-formation from buddy.
From bud.
From Budweiser.
Webster’s 1913
- noun A small protuberance on the stem or branches of a plant, containing the rudiments of future leaves, flowers, or stems; an undeveloped branch or flower.
- noun A small protuberance on certain low forms of animals and vegetables which develops into a new organism, either free or attached. See Hydra. Bud moth (Zoöl.), a lepidopterous insect of several species, which destroys the buds of fruit trees; esp. Tmetocera ocellana and Eccopsis malana on the apple tree.
- verb To put forth or produce buds, as a plant; to grow, as a bud does, into a flower or shoot.
- verb To begin to grow, or to issue from a stock in the manner of a bud, as a horn.
Etymology [OE. budde; cf. D. bot, G. butze, butz, the core of a fruit, bud, LG. butte in hagebutte, hainbutte, a hip of the dog-rose, or OF. boton, F. bouton, bud, button, OF. boter to bud, push; all akin to E. beat. See Button.]
Sources: Wiktionary · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “bud”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details