blossom

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   to develop or come to a promising stage

   Youth blossomed into maturity.

2. 2
   verb

   to produce or yield flowers

   The flowers blossom in the spring.

3. 3
   noun

   A flower, especially one indicating that a fruit tree is fruiting; (collectively) a mass of such flowers.

   The blossom has come early this year.

4. 4
   noun

   The state or season of producing such flowers.

   The orchard is in blossom.

5. 5
   noun

   A blooming period or stage of development; something lovely that gives rich promise.

   This beauty, in the blossom of my youth, / When my first fire knew no adulterate incense, / Nor I no way to flatter, but my fondness; / […] long did I love this lady, / Long was my travail, long my trade to win her; / With all the duty of my soul, I served her.

6. 6
   noun

   The colour of a horse that has white hairs intermixed with sorrel and bay hairs.

   For colour he [Nobs, a horse] was neither black-bay, brown-bay, dapple-bay, black-grey, iron-grey, sad-grey, branded-grey, sandy-grey, dapple-grey, silver-grey, dun, mouse-dun, flea-backed, flea-bitten, rount, blossom, roan, pye-bald, rubican, sorrel, cow-coloured sorrel, bright sorrel, burnt sorrel, starling-colour, tyger-colour, wolf-colour, deer-colour, cream-colour, white, grey or black. Neither was he green, like the horse which the Emperor [Septimus] Severus took from the Parthians, […]

7. 7
   verb

   To have, or open into, blossoms; to bloom.

   ANd the Loꝛde ſpake vnto Moſes ſayenge: ſpeake vnto the childern of Iſrael and take of them / foꝛ euery pꝛyncypall houſſe a rod / of their pꝛinces ouer the houſſes of their fathers: euen .xij. roddes / and wꝛyte euery mans name apon his rod. […] And his rod whom I choſe / ſhall bloſſome: So I wyll make ceaſe from me the grudgynges of the childern of Iſrael which they grudge agenſt you.

8. 8
   verb

   To begin to thrive or flourish.

   A quiet, studious man, rich in the wisdom that is better than learning, the charity which calls all mankind "brother," the piety that blossoms into character, making it august and lovely.

Etymology

From Middle English blosme, from Old English blostm, blostma, from Proto-Germanic *blōstmô (compare West Frisian blossem, Dutch bloesem; related to *blōstaz [compare German Blust]), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰleh₃-s- (“bloom, flower”), from *bʰleh₃- (“to bloom, to thrive”). Cognate with Albanian bleron (“to blossom, to thrive”), Latin flōs (“flower”), Flōra (“goddess of plants”). See more at blow (etymology 4).