bud
    n 1: a partially opened flower
    2: a swelling on a plant stem consisting of overlapping immature
       leaves or petals
    v 1: develop buds; "The hibiscus is budding!"
    2: start to grow or develop; "a budding friendship"

Bud \Bud\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Budded; p. pr. & vb. n.
   Budding.]
   1. To put forth or produce buds, as a plant; to grow, as a
      bud does, into a flower or shoot.
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   2. To begin to grow, or to issue from a stock in the manner
      of a bud, as a horn.
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   3. To be like a bud in respect to youth and freshness, or
      growth and promise; as, a budding virgin. --Shak.
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   Syn: To sprout; germinate; blossom.
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Bud \Bud\, v. t.
   To graft, as a plant with another or into another, by
   inserting a bud from the one into an opening in the bark of
   the other, in order to raise, upon the budded stock, fruit
   different from that which it would naturally bear.
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         The apricot and the nectarine may be, and usually are,
         budded upon the peach; the plum and the peach are
         budded on each other.                    --Farm. Dict.
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Bud \Bud\ (b[u^]d), n. [OE. budde; cf. D. bot, G. butze, butz,
   the core of a fruit, bud, LG. butte in hagebutte, hainbutte,
   a hip of the dog-rose, or OF. boton, F. bouton, bud, button,
   OF. boter to bud, push; all akin to E. beat. See Button.]
   1. (Bot.) A small protuberance on the stem or branches of a
      plant, containing the rudiments of future leaves, flowers,
      or stems; an undeveloped branch or flower.
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   2. (Biol.) A small protuberance on certain low forms of
      animals and vegetables which develops into a new organism,
      either free or attached. See Hydra.
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   Bud moth (Zool.), a lepidopterous insect of several
      species, which destroys the buds of fruit trees; esp.
      Tmetocera ocellana and Eccopsis malana on the apple
      tree.
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