▪ I. bud, n.1
(bʌd)
Forms: 4–5 bodde, 5–7 budde, (6 bood, botthe), 7 budd, 6– bud.
[Late ME. budde, bodde; of uncertain etymology. In ME. identical in form with budde.
Prof. Skeat suggests a connexion of some kind with ODu. botte, mod.Du. bot a bud, or with OF. boter, mod.F. bouter to push, put forth, whence F. bouton (see button n.) ‘bud’. (Franck refers the ODu. word to a Romanic source akin to or identical with OF. boter.) But such a change from t to d is anomalous.]
1. a. Bot. A little projection found at the axil of a leaf, composed of scales, which are small leaves, and forming the rudiment of a branch, cluster of leaves, or blossom. Hence, applied to a flower (or leaf) at any stage of growth until fully opened.
| 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xvii. lxxv, Sumtyme burgynge of boddes beþ gnawe and frete with flyes. c 1400 Purif. Marie in Tundale's Vis. (Turnb. 1843) 135 The comyng Of greene veer with fresch buddes new. 1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 234 So longe it is called the budde of a rose, as it is not a perfyte rose. 1527 Andrew Brunswyke's Distyll. Waters O ij, The best flowres ben of the rede apples..whan the botthes begynne the blossome and to go open. 1601 Shakes. Twel. N. ii. iv. 114 A worme i'th budde. a 1682 Sir T. Browne Tracts 64 To pluck away the bearing buds, before they proceed unto flowers or fruit. 1752 Johnson Rambl. No. 207 ¶8 The swelling bud and opening blossom. 1832 Tennyson Lotos-Eaters 71 The folded leaf is woo'd from out the bud. 1842 Gray Struct. Bot. i. (1880) 7 An incipient stem or branch, with its rudimentary leaves, is a Bud. |
b. Zool. A similar growth in animals of low organization, which develops into a new individual.
| 1836–9 Todd Cycl. Anat. & Phys. II. 433/1 The new individual grows upon the parent as a bud or sprout. 1861 Hulme tr. Moquin-Tandon ii. i. 46 The creature gives off from certain parts of its body buds or gemmæ, which at a fixed period become detached, and give rise to new animals. |
2. transf. Used of things resembling buds: as the rudiment of a horn when it begins to sprout; a nipple; a pimple in farcy, a disease of horses.
| 1593 Nashe Christs T. (1613) 145 Their breasts they embuske vp on hie, and their round Roseate buds immodestly lay forth. 1639 T. De Grey Compl. Horsem. 304 This powder healeth the buds or knots of the farcin. 1641 French Distill. iv. (1651) 103 The young buds of Harts-horne. 1702 Lond. Gaz. No. 3814/4 A..Grey Gelding..scar'd with the Farcy Buds. |
3. fig. a. Anything in an immature or undeveloped state.
| 1579 Tomson Calvin's Serm. Tim. 238/2 Such a desire is a budde of ambition. 1592 Warner Alb. Eng. viii. xxxix. 193 Our decent Church-Rites..Did then put forth her Braunches, and weare fruitfull in the bood. 1632 G. Herbert Temple, Sunday i, The fruit of this, the next worlds bud. 1727 Thomson Summer 582 The wint'ry blast of death Kills not the buds of virtue. |
b. Said of children or young persons, or as a term of endearment.
| 1595 Shakes. John iii. iv. 82 Now will Canker-sorrow eat my bud [Arthur], And chase the natiue beauty from his cheeke. 1675 Wycherley Country Wife ii. i, You are my own dear bud. Ibid. iii. ii, 'Tis no matter, no matter, bud. 1847 Tennyson Princ. vi. 176 Her eye..dwelt Full on the child; she took it: ‘Pretty bud!..half open'd bell of the woods!’ 1881 Confessions of friv. Girl 39 This is your first party..Yes, I am what is called a bud. |
c. ‘A weaned calf of the first year’ (Ray
S. and E.C. Words (1674) 60). Still in
dial. use.
| 1662 Collect. Campsey Ash 30 in Nichols Bibl. Top. Brit. (1790) lii. For every gast beast and heifer, gast ware and bud [calf], three half-pence apiece. 1875 Parish Sussex Dial., Bud, a calf of the first year, so called because the horns then begin to appear or bud. Mod. dial. Kent, There are three halfers [heifers] and two nice young buds in the yard. |
d. A girl who is just ‘coming out’; a débutante. Also more fully
bud of promise. Chiefly
U.S. colloq.| 1880 R. Grant Confessions of Frivolous Girl i. 39 ‘This is your first party, I believe, Miss Palmer?’..‘Yes, I am what is called a {oqq}bud{cqq}.’ 1888 Charlestown Enterprise (Farmer), The young, unmarried girl, in sport, Is called a bud of promise. 1889 Harper's Mag. Sept. 571/1 As dashing a belle as there was in the rooms—not a bud—a belle of some six or seven years standing. 1903 N.Y. Tribune 4 Oct., Among the latter [sc. the débutantes] will be Miss Enid Shaw, the only bud of the Cabinet circle. 1919 Sphere 1 Nov. 120/2 One of those dream-like young girls that only seem to happen in London during the height of the summer and winter seasons... This gilded ‘bud’ drove away in a cloak of warm pink panne. |
4. Phr.
in bud (said of plants;
cf. in leaf,
in flower): budding.
in the bud: not yet developed; often
fig. = young, immature, ‘in the germ’.
to nip or crush in the bud:
fig. to repress or destroy (a project, etc.) in its first beginnings (see also
nip v.
1 5 b.)
| 1677 A. Horneck Law of Consideration (1704) 89 If a tree does not thrive, if flowers do wither in the bud. 1746 Rep. Cond. Sir J. Cope 12 The crushing in the bud an Insurrection. 1844 Mem. Babylonian P'cess. II. 168 The plot was apparently nipped in the bud. 1847 Tennyson Princ. i. 31 While life was yet in bud and blade. 1867 Freeman Norm. Conq. I. iv. 258 Promising germs of freedom were..crushed in the bud. 1871 Earle Philol. Eng. Tong. (1880) §445 A flectional word is a phrase in the bud. |
5. Comb., as
bud-blighted,
bud-crowned,
bud-like adjs.,
bud-coat,
bud-generation,
bud-scale,
bud-time,
bud-variation. Also
bud-bird (
dial.), the Bullfinch;
† bud-cutter,
obs. name of an insect (
transl. F.
lisette ‘coupe-bourgeon’, Boiste);
bud-germ (
Zool.)
= 1 b;
bud-glue (see
quot.);
bud-graft v. trans. = bud v.
1 5; also as
n., a shrub or tree grown by this process; so
bud-grafted ppl. adj.;
bud-rot, rotting of the buds of a plant or tree; a disease characterized by this;
bud-rudiment, the cell in the embryo, from which the bud is developed;
bud-sport [
sport n.1 6 b], an abnormal variation produced from a bud;
bud-worm, a larva that feeds upon the buds of corn, tobacco, fir-trees, etc.
| 1865 Cornh. Mag. 35 The provincial *‘bud-bird’ of Herefordshire, the bullfinch. |
| 1820 Shelley Prometh. Unb. iv. i. 122 The *bud-blighted flowers of happiness. |
| 1866 C. Rossetti Prince's Progr. &c. 3 Poppies..Wrapped in *bud-coats hairy and neat. |
| 1857 Emerson Poems 50 The *bud-crowned Spring. |
| 1693 Evelyn De la Quint. Compl. Gard. II. 100 To have the end of their new Shoots..cut off by a little black round Insect, call'd *Bud-Cutter. |
| 1880 C. & F. Darwin Movem. Pl. 190 A bud may revert to the character of a former state many *bud-generations ago. |
| 1884 Bower & Scott De Bary's Phaner. & Ferns 99 Hanstein has termed these organs which cover the buds with a sticky secretion ‘Beleimer’, or Colleters, and their sticky product *bud-glue, or Blasto-colla. |
| 1930 Times 26 Mar. 25/6 The yields from *bud-grafted trees will exceed those from selected seedlings. Of the 4,343 acres planted, 2,200 acres are either bud-grafted or alternate rows of bud-grafts and selected seedlings. 1936 Economist 18 Apr. 152/1 Those young areas..had been budgrafted. |
| 1839 Bailey Festus (1854) 42 To watch young beauty's *budlike feelings burst And load the soul with love. 1847–9 Todd Cycl. Anat. & Phys. IV. 427/1 A simple canal with bud-like processes. |
| 1906 E. J. Butler in Agric. Jrnl. India I. 310 A cocoanut palm disease known as ‘*bud rot’. 1946 Nature 14 Dec. 882/1 Bud-rot in the eastern tropics, hitherto fortunately never confused with eelworm attack, is due to Phytophthora. |
| 1882 Vines Sachs' Bot. 297 A cell, which Pringsheim calls the *‘bud-rudiment’. |
| 1880 Gray Bot. Text-bk. 400 *Bud-scales. The dry teguments which serve to protect the..growing point within during the season of rest. |
| 1900 B. D. Jackson Gloss. Bot. Terms 38/1 *Bud sport. 1905 H. de Vries Species & Varieties xiv. 427 Bud-sports of variegated hollyhock, elms, chestnuts, beeches and others. 1956 C. Auerbach Genetics in Atomic Age vi. 41 If it [sc. a mutated gene] is of a kind to produce a visible effect, a so-called ‘bud-sport’ will result, for example, a branch with white berries on a red-currant bush. |
| 1850 Rep. Comm. Patents 1849 (U.S.) 459 With the *bud-worm you must be more particular. 1922 W. Schlich Man. Forestry (ed. 4) I. ii. 188 Financial assistance..for the balsam bud-worm investigation. |
▪ II. † bud, n.2 Sc. Obs. [prob. var. of bod, bode an offering, f. ppl. stem of OE. béodan (see bid v.) to offer.] A bribe. Also in comb.
bud-taker.
| 1436 Acts Jas. I, clv. (Jam.) All jugeis sall gar the assysouris sweir..that thay nouther haue tane, nor sall tak meid na buddis of ony partie. 1535 Lyndesay Satyre 1616, I am ane Iudge..Na bud nor fauour may my sicht oversyle. 1579 Act Jas. VI (1597) §93 The saidis Bud-takeris, to be displaced and deprived simpliciter of their offices. a 1651 Calderwood Hist. Kirk (Wodrow) III. 394 They acquired wealth by taking budds from such as had sutes to him. |
▪ III. bud, n.3 U.S. colloq. (
bʌd)
[Childish or colloq. pronunc. of brother n., or abbrev. of buddy n. Cf. bub n.6] Brother; used chiefly as a form of address.
| 1851 Polly Peasblossom's Wedd. 19 (Th.), ‘An't you joking, bud?’ asked Polly of her boy brother. 1889 Harper's Mag. Aug. 459/1 He said that his name was ‘Bud’ Lightwood... ‘It's brother,’ he said..‘{oqq}bud{cqq} and {oqq}sis{cqq}, you know.’ 1920 Mulford J. Nelson iv. 46 But, say, bud, we don't have to go to Highbank at all. 1953 W. R. Burnett Vanity Row i. 9 Gamblers..would often hand him a quarter..and say: ‘Keep it, bud.’ |
▪ IV. bud, v.1 (
bʌd)
[f. bud n.1] 1. intr. a. To put forth buds, to sprout.
b. with
out: To come or push out, as a bud.
| 1398 [see budding vbl. n.1] c 1440 Promp. Parv. 54 Buddun as trees, gemmo. 1535 Coverdale Job xiv. 8 The stocke..will budde. 1626 Bacon Sylva (1677) §417 The removing of the Tree some Moneth before it Buddeth. 1684 tr. Bonet's Merc. Compit. vi. 206 If..a Carbuncle bud out in the Arms or Legs. 1813 Scott Rokeby iii. xxviii, The rose is budding fain. 1862 H. Spencer First Princ. ii. xv. §119 (1875) 336 The wings and legs of a bird..when they bud-out from the sides of the embryo. |
2. fig. To spring forth, as a bud; to begin to grow; to develop; also with
out,
up.
| 1566 Knox Hist. Ref. Wks. 1846 I. 184 Thairby Goddis woord should somewhat bud. a 1593 H. Smith Serm. (1866) II. 254 Many vices bud out of this one. 1608 Golding Epit. Frossard's Chron. ii. 68 There was trouble and insurrection budding vp. 1613 Shakes. Hen. VIII, i. i. 94 The sodaine breach..is budded out, For France hath flaw'd the League. 1713 Young Last Day iii. 317 There, buds the promise of celestial worth. 1859 Merivale Rom. Emp. (1865) VIII. lxvi. 210 The camps which Agricola had planted..budded, in the course of ages, into little towns. |
3. trans. To put forth as buds; to produce by gemmation; also with
forth and
out. Also
fig.| 1591 Spenser Vis. Bellay 138 This Hydra..With seuen heads, budding monstrous crimes. 1625 Gonsalvio's Sp. Inquis., It buddeth forth such pestilent blossomes. 1854 Woodward Mollusca (1856) 49 The power they [zoöphytes] possess of budding out new individuals. 1869 Nicholson Zool. lviii. (1880) 520 Within the branchial chamber [of the tadpole]..the fore-limbs are budded forth. |
4. To bring into bud, cause to bud; also
fig.| 1604 Drayton Owle 3 The strength and fervour of whose pregnant ray, Buds every branch, and blossomes every spray. ? a 1700 Hawthorn Tree in Child Ballads I. 313 Next yere againe I will be sene To bude my branches. 1852 Tupper Proverb. Philos. 403 When did the body elevate, expand, and bud the mind? |
5. Gardening. To ingraft by inserting a bud of a shrub or tree under the bark of another ‘stock’, for the purpose of raising flowers or fruit different from those of the stock. Also
absol.| 1663 Cowley Verses & Ess. (1669) 119 We no where Art do so triumphant see, As when it Grafs or Buds the Tree. 1664 Evelyn Kal. Hort. (1729) 198 You may..bud at the end of this month. Ibid. Stocks to bud Oranges and Lemons on. 1725 Bradley Fam. Dict. II. s.v. Laurel, Grafted or budded upon black Cherry Stalks. 1853 Blackw. Mag. LXXIII. 131 He grafted, and budded, and hybridised. 1861 Delamer Fl. Gard. 156 To be budded on the Musk Rose. |
▪ V. † bud, v.2 Sc. [f. bud n.2] trans. To bribe.
| c 1565 Lindesay (Pitscottie) Cron. Scotl. (1728) 148 They budded the king to bide at home. 1582–8 Hist. Jas. VI, (1804) 198 Moirtoun..buddit Tullybardin with the office of the Comptroller. 1636 Rutherford Lett. lxiii. (1862) I. 169 To bud and bribe the Cross. 1657 [see budding vbl. n.2]. |
▪ VI. bud, v.3 Sc. = must: see
bus v.