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mushrooming

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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.
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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.
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Word Origin & History

mushroom 
1440 (attested as a surname, John Mussheron, from 1327), from Anglo-Fr. musherun, perhaps from L.L. mussirionem (nom. mussirio), though this may as well be borrowed from Fr. Barnhart says "of uncertain origin." Klein calls it "a word of pre-Latin origin, used in the North of France;" OED says it usually is held to be a derivative of Fr. mousse "moss," and Weekley agrees, saying it is properly "applied to variety which grows in moss." For the final -m he refers to grogram, vellum, venom. Used figuratively for "sudden appearance in full form" from 1590s. The verb meaning "expand or increase rapidly" is first recorded 1903. In ref. to the shape of clouds after explosions, etc., it is attested from 1916, though the actual phrase mushroom cloud does not appear until 1958.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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Medical Dictionary

Main Entry: mush·room
Pronunciation: 'm&sh-"rüm, -"rum
Function: noun
1 : an enlarged complex fleshy fruiting body of a fungus (asmost basidiomycetes) that arises from an underground mycelium and consists typically of a stem bearing a spore-bearing structure; especially : one that is edible —compare TOADSTOOL
2 : FUNGUS 1
Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary, © 2002 Merriam-Webster, Inc.
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