BLOSSOM

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does blossom mean? 

• BLOSSOM (noun)
  The noun BLOSSOM has 2 senses:

1. reproductive organ of angiosperm plants especially one having showy or colorful parts

2. the period of greatest prosperity or productivity

  Familiarity information: BLOSSOM used as a noun is rare.

• BLOSSOM (verb)
  The verb BLOSSOM has 2 senses:

1. produce or yield flowers

2. develop or come to a promising stage

  Familiarity information: BLOSSOM used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• BLOSSOM (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Reproductive organ of angiosperm plants especially one having showy or colorful parts

Classified under:

Nouns denoting plants

Synonyms:

bloom; blossom; flower

Hypernyms ("blossom" is a kind of...):

reproductive structure (the parts of a plant involved in its reproduction)

Meronyms (parts of "blossom"):

carpel (a simple pistil or one element of a compound pistil)

chlamys; floral envelope; perianth; perigone; perigonium (collective term for the outer parts of a flower consisting of the calyx and corolla and enclosing the stamens and pistils)

floral leaf (a modified leaf that is part of a flower)

ovary (the organ that bears the ovules of a flower)

pistil (the female ovule-bearing part of a flower composed of ovary and style and stigma)

stamen (the male reproductive organ of a flower)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "blossom"):

floret; floweret (a diminutive flower (especially one that is part of a composite flower))

apetalous flower (flower having no petals)

inflorescence (the flowering part of a plant or arrangement of flowers on a stalk)

ray floret; ray flower (small flower with a flat strap-shaped corolla usually occupying the peripheral rings of a composite flower)

bud (a partially opened flower)

chrysanthemum (the flower of a chrysanthemum plant)

Holonyms ("blossom" is a part of...):

angiosperm; flowering plant (plants having seeds in a closed ovary)

Derivation:

blossom (produce or yield flowers)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The period of greatest prosperity or productivity

Classified under:

Nouns denoting time and temporal relations

Synonyms:

bloom; blossom; efflorescence; flower; flush; heyday; peak; prime

Hypernyms ("blossom" is a kind of...):

period; period of time; time period (an amount of time)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "blossom"):

golden age (a time period when some activity or skill was at its peak)

Derivation:

blossom (develop or come to a promising stage)

• BLOSSOM (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they blossom    ... he / she / it blossoms   
Past simple: blossomed   
Past participle: blossomed   
-ing form: blossoming   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Produce or yield flowers

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

bloom; blossom; flower

Context example:

The cherry tree bloomed

Hypernyms (to "blossom" is one way to...):

develop (grow, progress, unfold, or evolve through a process of evolution, natural growth, differentiation, or a conducive environment)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "blossom"):

burst forth; effloresce (come into or as if into flower)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s

Derivation:

blossom (reproductive organ of angiosperm plants especially one having showy or colorful parts)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Develop or come to a promising stage

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

blossom; blossom forth; blossom out; unfold

Context example:

Youth blossomed into maturity

Hypernyms (to "blossom" is one way to...):

develop (grow, progress, unfold, or evolve through a process of evolution, natural growth, differentiation, or a conducive environment)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Somebody ----s

Derivation:

blossom (the period of greatest prosperity or productivity)

 Context examples 

I wonder if I should blossom out half as well as you have, if I tried it?

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Your career is blossoming beautifully too, and last month you made huge strides.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

Walt Irvine drew himself away with a jerk from the metaphysics and poetry of the organic miracle of blossom, and surveyed the landscape.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

This was no soil for kindliness and affection to blossom in.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

To my horror I perceived that the yellow blossoms were all dabbled with crimson.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“But Little Blossom is a very tender little blossom, and the wind must be gentle with her.”

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

I am not fond of nettles or thistles, or heath blossoms.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

I wondered why moralists call this world a dreary wilderness: for me it blossomed like a rose.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

There were big yellow and white and blue and purple blossoms, besides great clusters of scarlet poppies, which were so brilliant in color they almost dazzled Dorothy's eyes.

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)

It is strange that in one twelve hours the Abbey should have cast off its foulest weed and should now lose what we are fain to look upon as our choicest blossom.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)