sprouting

sprout  (sprout)

v. sprout·ed, sprout·ing, sprouts

v.intr.

1. To begin to grow; give off shoots or buds.

2. To emerge and develop rapidly.

v.tr.

To cause to come forth and grow.

n.

1. Young plant growth, such as a bud or shoot.

2. Something resembling or suggestive of a sprout, as in rapid growth: "a tall blond sprout of a boy" (Anne Tyler).

3. sprouts

a. The young shoots of plants such as alfalfa and soybean, usually eaten raw.

b. Brussels sprouts.

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[Middle English spruten, from Old English -sprtan (in sprtan, to sprout forth); see sper- in Indo-European roots.]

Thesaurus

Noun

1.

sprouting - the process whereby seeds or spores sprout and begin to grow germination growing, growth, ontogenesis, ontogeny, maturation, development - (biology) the process of an individual organism growing organically; a purely biological unfolding of events involved in an organism changing gradually from a simple to a more complex level; "he proposed an indicator of osseous development in children"