Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To put forth new buds, leaves, or greenery; sprout.
  • intransitive verb To begin to grow or blossom.
  • intransitive verb To grow or develop rapidly; expand or proliferate.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To bud; sprout; put forth new buds; shoot forth, as a branch.
  • noun A bud; a sprout.
  • noun A boss used for the cover of a book, to prevent injury to the binding. Often written burgen.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • intransitive verb To bud. See bourgeon.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun obsolete bud, sprout, shoot
  • verb intransitive To grow or expand.
  • verb intransitive To swell to the point of bursting.
  • verb intransitive, archaic Of plants, to bloom, bud.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb grow and flourish

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English burgeonen, from Old French borjoner, from burjon, a bud, from Vulgar Latin *burriō, burriōn-, from Late Latin burra, a shaggy garment.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English burjon, burioun "shoot, bud" from Anglo-Norman burjun, burgeon, burgon (compare Old French burjon "a bud"), from Frankish *burjo (“sprout, offshoot, descendant”), from Proto-Germanic *burjô (“sprout, descendant, offshoot”), from Proto-Germanic *beranan (“to carry, bear”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰer-, *bʰrē- (“to bear”). Akin to Old High German burjan ("to push up, raise"), Old English byrian ("to come up, occur"), Old English byre ("child, son, descendant"). More at bear.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English, from Old French borjoner, burjoner ("to bud, to sprout"), from burjon ("a bud"), of uncertain origin, perhaps from Germanic.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word burgeon.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • Dictionary.com, The market for collectibles has burgeoned in recent years.

    November 5, 2010

  • Talk like that is the rain that should make buried love for one's country burgeon.

    Ngugi wa Thiong'o, Devil on the Cross

    December 14, 2011

  • verb: grow and flourish

    China's housing market is burgeoning, but some predict that the growth is merely a bubble and will burst much like the U.S. real estate bubble of 2008.

    October 19, 2016