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sprout - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

Sprouts on onions
A mother and her sprout

From Middle English sproute, either from Middle English sprouten (“to sprout”) (see below); or from Middle Dutch sprute or Middle Low German sprûte (“sprout”), all related to Proto-West Germanic *spreutan. Doublet of spruit.

sprout (plural sprouts)

  1. A new growth on a plant, whether from seed or other parts.
  2. A child.

    Oh my, how your sprouts have grown!

  3. A Brussels sprout.

    In our family we eat sprouts but once a year, on Christmas.

  4. A bean sprout.
  5. An edible germinated seed.

new growth on a plant

child

From Middle English sprouten, spruten, from Old English sprūtan, from Proto-West Germanic *spreutan, from Proto-Germanic *spreutaną.

sprout (third-person singular simple present sprouts, present participle sprouting, simple past and past participle sprouted)

  1. (horticulture, intransitive) To grow from seed; to germinate.

    The crocuses should be sprouting after 2 months, provided they're well tended.

  2. (transitive) To cause to grow from a seed.

    I sprouted beans and radishes and put them in my salad.

  3. (transitive) To deprive of sprouts.

    to sprout potatoes

  4. (intransitive) To emerge from the ground as sprouts.
  5. (figurative, intransitive) To emerge haphazardly from a surface.

    Whiskers sprouted from the old man's chin.

  6. (figurative, intransitive) To emerge or appear haphazardly.

    A lot of coffee shops have sprouted up in this neighbourhood since the block of flats was put up.

    • 2023 August 23, David E Norris, “Joseph Locke: a railway injustice...”, in RAIL, number 990, page 56:

      In those early years of the 1830s and 1840s, railways were sprouting up all over the country in a haphazard way.

to grow, to germinate

to cause to grow from a seed

Translations to be checked