cauliflower

plural cauliflowers

1. countableuncountableBrassica oleracea var. botrytis, an annual variety of cabbage, of which the cluster of young flower stalks and buds is eaten as a vegetable.

   ASPARAGUS, cauliflowers, imperial Sileſia, royal and cabbage lettuces, burnet, purſlain, cucumbers, naſturtian flowers, peaſe and beans ſown in October, artichokes, ſcarlet ſtrawberries, and kidney beans.

   1767, A Lady [Hannah Glasse], The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Eaſy […] , page 326

2. countableuncountableThe edible head or curd of a cauliflower plant.
3. countableuncountableThe swelling of a cauliflower ear.

   His ears were small (fortunately so, given his dramatic hairstyle) and bore no traditional cauliflowers.

   2018, John Harding, The Whitechapel Whirlwind: The Jack Kid Berg Story

present singular third person cauliflowers · participle present cauliflowering · participle past cauliflowered · past cauliflowered

1. ambitransitiveTo (cause to) swell up like a cauliflower ear.

   The soft steel of the back edge by now has cauliflowered over from hammering on it.

   1974, Alexander G. Weygers, The Modern Blacksmith, page 39

   2 more examples

   I noticed his right ear was badly cauliflowered and that explained a number of things. It wasn't a new job of cauliflowering.

   1947, Elliott Chaze, The Stainless Steel Kimono, page 49

   Returning to your first point, the cauliflowering of magnesite bricks — we presume that this is due to your using high concentrations of oxygen for blowing the furnace, giving high checker-temperatures.

   1960, Transactions of the British Ceramic Society, page 281