bud

bud
    n 1: a partially opened flower
    2: a swelling on a plant stem consisting of overlapping immature
       leaves or petals
    v 1: develop buds; "The hibiscus is budding!"
    2: start to grow or develop; "a budding friendship"
    

Bud \Bud\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. {Budded}; p. pr. & vb. n.
   {Budding}.]
   1. To put forth or produce buds, as a plant; to grow, as a
      bud does, into a flower or shoot.
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   2. To begin to grow, or to issue from a stock in the manner
      of a bud, as a horn.
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   3. To be like a bud in respect to youth and freshness, or
      growth and promise; as, a budding virgin. --Shak.
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   Syn: To sprout; germinate; blossom.
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Bud \Bud\, v. t.
   To graft, as a plant with another or into another, by
   inserting a bud from the one into an opening in the bark of
   the other, in order to raise, upon the budded stock, fruit
   different from that which it would naturally bear.
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         The apricot and the nectarine may be, and usually are,
         budded upon the peach; the plum and the peach are
         budded on each other.                    --Farm. Dict.
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Bud \Bud\ (b[u^]d), n. [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}.]
   1. (Bot.) 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.
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   2. (Biol.) A small protuberance on certain low forms of
      animals and vegetables which develops into a new organism,
      either free or attached. See {Hydra}.
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   {Bud moth} (Zool.), a lepidopterous insect of several
      species, which destroys the buds of fruit trees; esp.
      {Tmetocera ocellana} and {Eccopsis malana} on the apple
      tree.
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123 Moby Thesaurus words for "bud":
      Anlage, acrospire, aunt, auntie, blood brother, boy, brethren,
      brother, bub, bubba, buck, buddy, burgeon, burst forth, chick,
      chickabiddy, colt, country cousin, cousin, cousin once removed,
      cousin twice removed, cub, daughter, egg, embryo, engraft, father,
      fellow, first cousin, fledgling, flourish, flower bud,
      foster brother, frater, gemma, gemmate, gemmula, gemmule, germ,
      germen, germinate, graft, grandnephew, grandniece, granduncle,
      great-aunt, great-uncle, grow, grow rank, half brother,
      hobbledehoy, imp, implant, inarch, juvenile, kid, kid brother, lad,
      laddie, leaf, leaf bud, leaf out, leave, loins, luxuriate,
      manchild, master, moppet, mother, muchacho, nephew, niece, nipper,
      nucleus, nuncle, nunks, nunky, overgrow, overrun, ovum, plumule,
      pullulate, pup, puppy, put forth, put forth leaves, put out buds,
      riot, root, rudiment, schoolboy, second cousin, seed, shoot,
      shoot up, sis, sissy, sister, sister-german, sistern, son, sonny,
      sonny boy, spark, spermatozoon, sprout, sprout up, stepbrother,
      stepsister, strike root, take root, unc, uncle, uncs, upspear,
      upsprout, uterine brother, vegetate, whelp, young man, youngling,
      youngster, youth