Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To put forth new buds, leaves, or greenery; sprout.
- v. To begin to grow or blossom.
- v. To grow or develop rapidly.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A bud; a sprout.
- n. A boss used for the cover of a book, to prevent injury to the binding. Often written burgen.
- To bud; sprout; put forth new buds; shoot forth, as a branch.
Wiktionary
- n. obsolete bud, sprout, shoot
- v. intransitive To grow or expand.
- v. intransitive To swell to the point of bursting.
- v. intransitive, archaic Of plants, to bloom, bud.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To bud. See bourgeon.
WordNet 3.0
- v. grow and flourish
Etymologies
- From Middle English, from Old French borjoner, burjoner ("to bud, to sprout"), from burjon ("a bud"), of uncertain origin, perhaps from Germanic. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English burgeonen, from Old French borjoner, from burjon, a bud, from Vulgar Latin *burriō, burriōn-, from Late Latin burra, a shaggy garment. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The reason that the number of universes burgeon is that these parallel worlds evolve not out of human decisions but out of quantum events: out of the tendency for atoms and other particles to exist in two simultaneous states.”
Parallel Worlds, Parallel Lives « We Don't Count Your Own Visits To Your Blog
“There, too, at the University, his poetical gifts commenced to "burgeon" luxuriantly.”
“I like the idea of when rock 'n' roll started to burgeon, push the envelope and speak on behalf of people who were trying to have a revolution.”
The Huffington Post: Crystal Chan: Mother Mother's Ryan Guldemond Exercises "His Right to be Loud"
“There is ongoing activity presently in Yemen in Somalia, to name the two countries which may yet burgeon into full-fledged conflicts.”
The Wall Street Journal: Study Finds Extensive Waste in War Contracting
“The Republicans are content to watch fiscal and economic troubles of their own making burgeon into a conflagration, betting that an unsophisticated electorate will blame the current occupant of the White House come 2012.”
“When we look back, the past 24 hours will probably prove to be the moment at which this scandal ceased to "burgeon," as the media like to say about scandals, and started to recede.”
The Wall Street Journal: Is the Worst Over for David Cameron?
“After taking command in Afghanistan Petraeus doubled the number of airstrikes and dramatically increased night raids, leaving Pakistan to wonder the degree to which the drone program will burgeon during King David's reign as intelligence chief.”
The Huffington Post: Michael Hughes: Obama's Drone Surge in Pakistan Doing More Damage Than Good
“Indeed, far from diminishing, the novel's fame continues to burgeon.”
“In my time in the country I witnessed a women's group burgeon from 20 to 500 people, a community rally to build a women's center, double the size of a community clinic with their own contributions and ethnic divisions heal.”
The Huffington Post: Nate Richardson: Don't Let Karnplay Go Into Play...
“The spirituality of food will burgeon, just as food shortages begin to spark regional wars and conflicts in parts of the two-thirds world.”
The Huffington Post: Jon M. Sweeney: What Will Be The Top Religion Stories Of 2012?
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘burgeon’.
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GRE 2014
abase, abate, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abjure, abortive, abound, abrasive, abreast, abridge and 1577 more...
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501
Classic
aberration, abstruse, anomaly, assiduous, august, banal, boisterous, dulcet, epitome, impudent, insolent, mellifluous and 401 more...
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GRE Barron's 800
zealot, wistful, welter, wary, whimsical, warranted, vortex, vivisection, volatile, vitiate, viscous, visage and 787 more...
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EN - archaic words
abide, abjure, abroad, adamant, afield, aforetime, aghast, anon, apace, argent, assuage, aught and 328 more...
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501
Classic
aberration, abstruse, anomaly, assiduous, august, banal, boisterous, dulcet, epitome, impudent, insolent, mellifluous and 401 more...
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SAT Words
But only the ones that I don't already know.
abase, abash, abominate, abstruse, acclivity, accolade, accost, adroit, adulate, adulterate, adumbrate, affray and 241 more...
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501
Classic
aberration, abstruse, anomaly, assiduous, august, banal, boisterous, dulcet, epitome, impudent, insolent, mellifluous and 401 more...
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501
Classic
aberration, abstruse, anomaly, assiduous, august, banal, boisterous, dulcet, epitome, impudent, insolent, mellifluous and 401 more...
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New Words
Words I want to add to my working vocabulary.
picayune, elision, intimated, modicum, non sequitur, insouciant, vituperate, asperity, perfidious, gainsay, fulmination, inimical and 11 more...
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gone for the most part -geon
on is gone
plungeon, curmudgeon, pigeon, sturgeon, dudgeon, pigwidgeon, widgeon, habergeon, smidgeon, melungeon, gudgeon, chirurgeon and 16 more...
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scholarly writing words
decrement, replete, impel, iterative, subsume, tacit, vex, denote, impart, ascertain, coalesce, extant and 49 more...
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to memorize
words i need to memorize
aberrant, abscond, advocate, aggrandize, amalgamate, ambiguous, ambrosial, anomalous, antediluvian, antipathy, arbitrate, assuage and 163 more...
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SAT Words
But only the ones that I don't already know.
abase, abash, abominate, abstruse, acclivity, accolade, accost, adroit, adulate, adulterate, adumbrate, affray and 241 more...
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GRE Words
abjure, unswear, state, rescission, indemnification, ab, reny, abnegate, vitiated, vitiate, adumbrated, abash and 378 more...
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my GRE words
pedant, wizened, histrionic, logorrhea, frenetic, approbation, quibble, knell, acclivity, droog, prevarication, aplomb and 182 more...
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GRE
abate, abdicate, aberrant, abhor, abjure, abrasive, abridge, abstain, acme, activism, adhere, admonish and 195 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for burgeon.
kingparton Talk like that is the rain that should make buried love for one's country burgeon.
Ngugi wa Thiong'o, Devil on the Cross Dec 14, 2011
lweber5@scf.edu Dictionary.com, The market for collectibles has burgeoned in recent years.
Nov 5, 2010