MUSHROOM • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Mushroom

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/mˈəʃrum/ Listen

noun

Mushroom n.

(Bot.)

(a)

An edible fungus (Agaricus campestris), having a white stalk which bears a convex or oven flattish expanded portion called the pileus. This is whitish and silky or somewhat scaly above, and bears on the under side radiating gills which are at first flesh-colored, but gradually become brown. The plant grows in rich pastures and is proverbial for rapidity of growth and shortness of duration. It has a pleasant smell, and is largely used as food. It is also cultivated from spawn.

(b)

Any large fungus developing a visible fruiting body with a stem and cap, usu. of the basidiomycetes; especially One of the genus Agaricus; a toadstool. Several species are edible; but many are very poisonous. The term mushroom is used most often for edible varieties, the poisonous ones being termed toadstools or other names. But this distinction is often ignored.

One who rises suddenly from a low condition in life; an upstart.

verb

mushroom v. i.

To grow or expand rapidly.

To grow so much and so rapidly as to change qualitatively; used with into; as, a minor border skirmish mushroomed into a full-blown war.

adjective

Mushroom adj.

Of or pertaining to mushrooms; as, mushroom catchup.

Resembling mushrooms in rapidity of growth and shortness of duration; short-lived; ephemerial; as, mushroom cities.

Mushroom anchor, an anchor shaped like a mushroom, capable of grasping the ground in whatever way it falls.

Mushroom coral (Zool.), any coral of the genus Fungia. See Fungia.

Mushroom spawn (Bot.), the mycelium, or primary filamentous growth, of the mushroom; also, cakes of earth and manure containing this growth, which are used for propagation of the mushroom.

mushroom cloud, a cloud of smoke rising and then spreading laterally to take on the shape of a mushroom caused by large fires or explosions, esp. nuclear explosions.

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Etymology of 'Mushroom'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Mushroom" Quotes from Famous Books

... and of Valerian, Fronto. Syria is now Rome's. Palmyra, that mushroom of a day, is level with the ground. Her life is out. She will be hereafter known but by the fame of her past greatness, of her matchless Queen, and the glory of the victories that crowned the arms of Aurelian. What ...

— Aurelian - or, Rome in the Third Century • William Ware

... was full of buoys of all shapes; some new and fresh, others old and rugged; all of them would have appeared surprisingly gigantic to any one accustomed to see buoys only in their native element. The invalid sat on the shank of a mushroom anchor, and smoked his pipe while he affected to superintend ...

— The Floating Light of the Goodwin Sands • R.M. Ballantyne

... immortality. Thus with a certain fitness pilgrimages are its most noticeable rites. One cannot journey anywhere in the heart of Japan without meeting multitudes of these pilgrims, with their neat white leggings and their mushroom-like hats, nor rest at night at any inn that is not hung with countless little banners of the pilgrim associations, of which they all are members. Being a pilgrim there is equivalent to being a tourist here, only that to the excitement of doing ...

— The Soul of the Far East • Percival Lowell

... the ballad-mongers, we have mentioned Elderton, Deloney, and Johnson. We might add a hundred others, from Anthony Munday to Martin Parker, and even Tom Durfey, each of whom contributed largely to the vast mushroom-literature that sprang up and flourished vigorously for the next century. Chappell mentions that seven hundred and ninety-six ballads remained at the end of 1560 in the cupboards of the council-chamber of the Stationers' ...

— Ballads of Romance and Chivalry - Popular Ballads of the Olden Times - First Series • Frank Sidgwick

... garments, and plucked the great blue convolvuli to crown her forehead. Soon, on a plot of Roman violets, screened by tall trees and trellises, we breakfasted. One might have said that the cloth was laid above giant mushroom-stems, the service acorn-cups and calices of milky blooms; golden was the honey-comb we broke, manna was our bread; she caught the water in her hand from the fountain and pledged me, and swift as sunshine I bent forward and prevented the thirsty lips. Then she laid my head on her shoulder, ...

— Atlantic Monthly, Volume 11, Issue 67, May, 1863 • Various

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