bloom

See also: Bloom, blööm, and Blööm

English

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for bloom in
Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.)

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /bluːm/
  • (file)
  • Homophone: Bloom
  • Rhymes: -uːm

Etymology 1

From Middle English blome, from Old Norse blóm, from Proto-Germanic *blōmô (compare West Frisian blom, Low German Bloom, Dutch bloem, German Blume, Norwegian blom, blome, Danish blomme, Swedish blomma, from *blōaną, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰleh₃- (to thrive, flower, bloom) (compare Irish bláth (flower), Latin folium (leaf), Albanian bilonjë (twig, branch), Ancient Greek φύλλον (phúllon, leaf)). More at blow.

Noun

bloom (countable and uncountable, plural blooms)

  1. A blossom; the flower of a plant; an expanded bud.
    • (Can we date this quote?) Prescott
      the rich blooms of the tropics
  2. Flowers, collectively.
  3. (uncountable) The opening of flowers in general; the state of blossoming or of having the flowers open.
    The cherry trees are in bloom.
    • (Can we date this quote?) John Milton
      sight of vernal bloom
  4. (figuratively) A state or time of beauty, freshness, and vigor/vigour; an opening to higher perfection, analogous to that of buds into blossoms.
    • (Can we date this quote?) Hawthorne
      Every successive mother has transmitted a fainter bloom, a more delicate and briefer beauty.
    • 1992, Kurt Cobain (lyrics), “In Bloom”, in Nevermind, performed by Nirvana:
      We can have some more / Nature is a whore / Bruises on the fruit / Tender age in bloom
    the bloom of youth
  5. Rosy colour; the flush or glow on a person's cheek.
  6. The delicate, powdery coating upon certain growing or newly-gathered fruits or leaves, as on grapes, plums, etc.
  7. Anything giving an appearance of attractive freshness.
    • (Can we date this quote?) Thackeray
      a new, fresh, brilliant world, with all the bloom upon it
  8. The clouded appearance which varnish sometimes takes upon the surface of a picture.
  9. A yellowish deposit or powdery coating which appears on well-tanned leather.
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Knight to this entry?)
  10. (mineralogy) A bright-hued variety of some minerals.
    the rose-red cobalt bloom
  11. (cooking) A white area of cocoa butter that forms on the surface of chocolate when warmed and cooled.
  12. (television) An undesirable halo effect that may occur when a very bright region is displayed next to a very dark region of the screen.
Synonyms
Derived terms
Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English bloom (a blossom)

Verb

bloom (third-person singular simple present blooms, present participle blooming, simple past and past participle bloomed)

  1. (transitive) To cause to blossom; to make flourish.
    • (Can we date this quote?) Hooker
      Charitable affection bloomed them.
  2. (transitive) To bestow a bloom upon; to make blooming or radiant.
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Milton to this entry?)
    • (Can we date this quote?) Keats
      While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day.
  3. (intransitive) Of a plant, to produce blooms; to open its blooms.
    • (Can we date this quote?) John Milton
      A flower which once / In Paradise, fast by the tree of life, / Began to bloom.
  4. (intransitive, figuratively) Of a person, business, etc, to flourish; to be in a state of healthful, growing youth and vigour; to show beauty and freshness.
    • 2017 May 13, Barney Ronay, “Antonio Conte’s brilliance has turned Chelsea’s pop-up team into champions”, in the Guardian:
      The attacking three have also been allowed to bloom. Liberated from deep defensive duties Eden Hazard has become more expressive, more obviously, flashily complete.
    • (Can we date this quote?) Logan
      A better country blooms to view, / Beneath a brighter sky.
Synonyms
Derived terms
Translations

Etymology 3

From Old English blōma

Noun

bloom (plural blooms)

  1. The spongy mass of metal formed in a furnace by the smelting process.
    • 1957, H.R. Schubert, History of the British Iron and Steel Industry, p. 26:
      These metallic bodies gradually increasing in volume finally conglomerate into a larger mass, the bloom, which is extracted from the furnace with tongs.
Translations

Chinook Jargon

Etymology

Borrowed from English broom.

Noun

bloom

  1. broom

Derived terms


Manx

Etymology

Borrowed from English bloom.

Noun

bloom m (genitive singular [please provide], plural [please provide])

  1. (metallurgy) bloom

Mutation

Manx mutation
RadicalLenitionEclipsis
bloomvloommloom
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every
possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.
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