bloom

Noun

bloom (countable and uncountable, plural blooms)

1. A blossom; the flower of a plant; an expanded bud.
   • Prescott

     the rich blooms of the tropics

2. Flowers, collectively.
3. (uncountable) The opening of flowers in general; the state of blossoming or of having the flowers open.

   The cherry trees are in bloom.

   • Milton

     sight of vernal bloom

4. (figuratively) A state or time of beauty, freshness, and vigor/vigour; an opening to higher perfection, analogous to that of buds into blossoms.
   • Hawthorne

     Every successive mother has transmitted a fainter bloom, a more delicate and briefer beauty.

   • 1992, Kurt Cobain (lyrics), “In Bloom”, in Nevermind, performed by Nirvana:

     We can have some more / Nature is a whore / Bruises on the fruit / Tender age in bloom

   the bloom of youth

5. The delicate, powdery coating upon certain growing or newly-gathered fruits or leaves, as on grapes, plums, etc.
6. Anything giving an appearance of attractive freshness.
   • Thackeray

     a new, fresh, brilliant world, with all the bloom upon it

7. The clouded appearance which varnish sometimes takes upon the surface of a picture.
8. A yellowish deposit or powdery coating which appears on well-tanned leather.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Knight to this entry?)

9. (mineralogy) A popular term for a bright-hued variety of some minerals.

   the rose-red cobalt bloom

10. (cooking) A white area of cocoa butter that forms on the surface of chocolate when warmed and cooled.
11. (television) An undesirable halo effect that may occur when a very bright region is displayed next to a very dark region of the screen.

Verb

bloom (third-person singular simple present blooms, present participle blooming, simple past and past participle bloomed)

1. (transitive) To cause to blossom; to make flourish.
   • Hooker

     Charitable affection bloomed them.

2. (transitive) To bestow a bloom upon; to make blooming or radiant.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Milton to this entry?)

   • Keats

     While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day.

3. (intransitive) Of a plant, to produce blooms; to open its blooms.
   • Milton

     A flower which once / In Paradise, fast by the tree of life, / Began to bloom.

4. (intransitive, figuratively) Of a person, business, etc, to flourish; to be in a state of healthful, growing youth and vigour; to show beauty and freshness.
   • 2017 May 13, Barney Ronay, “Antonio Conte’s brilliance has turned Chelsea’s pop-up team into champions”, in the Guardian‎:

     The attacking three have also been allowed to bloom. Liberated from deep defensive duties Eden Hazard has become more expressive, more obviously, flashily complete.

   • Logan

     A better country blooms to view, / Beneath a brighter sky.

Noun

bloom (plural blooms)

1. The spongy mass of metal formed in a furnace by the smelting process.
   • 1957, H.R. Schubert, History of the British Iron and Steel Industry, p. 26:

     These metallic bodies gradually increasing in volume finally conglomerate into a larger mass, the bloom, which is extracted from the furnace with tongs.

Derived terms

• mamook bloom