Dictionary
Thesaurus
Reference
Translate
Web
Nearby Entries

mushrooming

- 2 dictionary results

mush⋅room

  [muhsh-room, -room]
Use mushrooming in a Sentence
–noun
1. any of various fleshy fungi including the toadstools, puffballs, coral fungi, morels, etc.
2. any of several edible species, esp. of the family Agaricaceae, as Agaricus campestris (meadow mushroom or field mushroom), cultivated for food in the U.S.
3. anything of similar shape or correspondingly rapid growth.
4. a large, mushroom-shaped cloud of smoke or rubble, formed in the atmosphere as a result of an explosion, esp. a nuclear explosion.
–adjective
5. of, consisting of, or containing mushrooms: a mushroom omelet.
6. resembling a mushroom in shape or form.
7. of rapid growth and often brief duration: mushroom towns of the gold-rush days.
–verb (used without object)
8. to spread, grow, or develop quickly.
9. to gather mushrooms.
10. to have or assume the shape of a mushroom.
Origin:
1350–1400; alter. (by folk etym.) of ME muscheron, musseroun < MF mousseron ≪ LL mussiriōn-, s. of mussiriō

Related forms:
mush⋅room⋅like, adjective
mush⋅room⋅y, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To mushrooming
mush·room   (mŭsh'rōōm', -rŏŏm')   
n.  
  1. Any of various fleshy fungi of the class Basidiomycota, characteristically having an umbrella-shaped cap borne on a stalk, especially any of the edible kinds, as those of the genus Agaricus.
  2. Something shaped like one of these fungi.
intr.v.   mush·roomed, mush·room·ing, mush·rooms
  1. To multiply, grow, or expand rapidly: The population mushroomed in the postwar decades.
  2. To swell or spread out into a shape similar to a mushroom.
adj.  
  1. Relating to, consisting of, or containing mushrooms: mushroom sauce.
  2. Resembling mushrooms in rapidity of growth or evanescence: mushroom towns.

[Alteration (influenced by room) of Middle English musheron, from Anglo-Norman moscheron, musherum, from Old French mousseron, from Medieval Latin musariō, musariōn-.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Cite This Source
Search another word or see mushrooming on Thesaurus | Reference
>