blossom

plural blossoms · alternative blasom

1. countableuncountableA flower, especially one indicating that a fruit tree is fruiting; (collectively) a mass of such flowers.

   The blossom has come early this year.

   3 more examples

   And on the moꝛowe / Moſes went in to the tabernacle: and beholde / the rod of Aaron of the houſſe of Leui was budded ⁊ bare bloſomes and almondes.

   1530 January 27 (Gregorian calendar), W[illiam] T[yndale], transl., [The Pentateuch] (Tyndale Bible), Malborow [Marburg], Hesse: […] Hans Luft [actually Antwerp: Johan Hoochstraten], →OCLC, Numeri xvij:[8], folio xxxiiij, verso

   Foppiſh and fantaſtick Ornaments are only Indications of Vice, not criminal in themſelves. Extinguiſh Vanity in the Mind, and you naturally retrench the little Superfluities of Garniture and Equipage. The Bloſſoms will fall of themſelves, when the Root that nouriſhes them is deſtroyed.

   1711 March 16, Joseph Addison, Richard Steele, editors, The Spectator, volume I, number 16, London: […] S[amuel] Buckley, […]; and J[acob] Tonson, […], published 1712, →OCLC, page 89

   Winter, spring, and summer, passed away during my labours; but I did not watch the blossom or the expanding leaves—sights which before always yielded me supreme delight, so deeply was I engrossed in my occupation.

   1816 June – 1817 April/May (date written), [Mary Shelley], chapter III, in Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. […], volume I, London: […] [Macdonald and Son] for Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor, & Jones, published 1 January 1818, →OCLC, page 95

2. countableuncountableThe state or season of producing such flowers.

   The orchard is in blossom.

   1 more example

   Down by the River Wye, among plum-trees in blossom, Noel had laid her baby in a hammock, and stood reading a letter: […]

   1919 October, John Galsworthy, chapter I, in Saint’s Progress, London: William Heinemann, published December 1919, →OCLC, part III, 1 §, page 217

3. countablefigurativelyuncountableA blooming period or stage of development; something lovely that gives rich promise.

   This beauty, in the blossom of my youth, / When my first fire knew no adulterate incense, / Nor I no way to flatter, but my fondness; / […] long did I love this lady, / Long was my travail, long my trade to win her; / With all the duty of my soul, I served her.

   c. 1619–1622, Philip Massinger, “A Very Woman”, in Three New Playes: viz. The Bashful Lover, Guardian, Very Woman. […], London: […] Humphrey Moseley, […], published 1655, →OCLC, act IV, scene iii; republished as W[illiam] Gifford, editor, The Plays of Philip Massinger, […], volume IV, London: […] [F]or G[eorge] and W[illiam] Nicol [et al.] by W[illiam] Bulmer and Co., […], 1805, →OCLC, page 317

4. countableuncountableThe colour of a horse that has white hairs intermixed with sorrel and bay hairs.

   1 more example

   For colour he [Nobs, a horse] was neither black-bay, brown-bay, dapple-bay, black-grey, iron-grey, sad-grey, branded-grey, sandy-grey, dapple-grey, silver-grey, dun, mouse-dun, flea-backed, flea-bitten, rount, blossom, roan, pye-bald, rubican, sorrel, cow-coloured sorrel, bright sorrel, burnt sorrel, starling-colour, tyger-colour, wolf-colour, deer-colour, cream-colour, white, grey or black. Neither was he green, like the horse which the Emperor [Septimus] Severus took from the Parthians, […]

   1834–1847, Robert Southey, “A Feeble Attempt to Describe the Physical and Moral Qualities of Nobs”, in John Wood Warter, editor, The Doctor, &c., London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green and Longman, →OCLC; new edition, London: Longman, Green, Longman, and Roberts, 1862, →OCLC, page 358, column 2

present singular third person blossoms · participle present blossoming · participle past blossomed · past blossomed

1. intransitiveTo have, or open into, blossoms; to bloom.

   The Utricularia vulgaris or bladder-wort, a yellow pea-like flower, has blossomed in stagnant pools.

   1851 June 22, Henry D[avid] Thoreau, edited by H[arrison] G[ray] O[tis] Blake, Summer: From the Journal of Henry D. Thoreau, London: T. Fisher Unwin, […], published 1884, →OCLC, page 210

   1 more example

   ANd the Loꝛde ſpake vnto Moſes ſayenge: ſpeake vnto the childern of Iſrael and take of them / foꝛ euery pꝛyncypall houſſe a rod / of their pꝛinces ouer the houſſes of their fathers: euen .xij. roddes / and wꝛyte euery mans name apon his rod. […] And his rod whom I choſe / ſhall bloſſome: So I wyll make ceaſe from me the grudgynges of the childern of Iſrael which they grudge agenſt you.

   1530 January 27 (Gregorian calendar), W[illiam] T[yndale], transl., [The Pentateuch] (Tyndale Bible), Malborow [Marburg], Hesse: […] Hans Luft [actually Antwerp: Johan Hoochstraten], →OCLC, Numeri xvij:[1–2 and 5], folio xxxiiij, verso

   Synonyms: bloom, come into bloom, come into blossom, flower, blow

2. intransitiveTo begin to thrive or flourish.

   A quiet, studious man, rich in the wisdom that is better than learning, the charity which calls all mankind "brother," the piety that blossoms into character, making it august and lovely.

   1869, Louisa M[ay] Alcott, “Gossip”, in Little Women: […], 2nd part, Boston, Mass.: Roberts Brothers, →OCLC, page 5

   2 more examples

   Since I came back from Pomona I have done many drawings to illustrate the Inferno of Dante [Alighieri] and I find my old Italian love blossoming all over again for this greatest of all master poets, bar none.

   1961 January 30, Rico Lebrun, “New Haven · Capri · Rome (1958–1960) [To David Lebrun from Los Angeles, January 30, 1961]”, in James Renner, David Lebrun, editors, In the Meridian of the Heart: Selected Letters of Rico Lebrun, Boston, Mass.: David R. Godine, […], published 2000, →ISBN, page 66

   In February, Mswati announced that he had recovered from Covid-19 after undergoing treatment “for a couple of days” with an undisclosed antiviral medication from Taiwan. Eswatini enjoys a blossoming diplomatic tie with Taiwan — currently the East Asian country’s only ally in Africa.

   2021 June 29, Nimi Princewill and Stephanie Busari, “Officials deny King of Eswatini – Africa’s lone absolute monarch – has fled”, in CNN

   Synonyms: bloom, flourish, grow, prosper, thrive

1. A hamlet in New York.
2. A city in Texas.
3. rareA female given name.

   The resulting craze is probably attributable to a Waialua Elementary guidance teacher, Blossom Galbiso, who introduced the game into O'ahu schoolyards in 1992.

   1995, Robert C. Schmitt, Firsts and Almost Firsts in Hawaii, page 192