Word forms: plural, 3rd person singular presenttense mushrooms, present participle mushrooming, past tense, past participle mushroomed
1. variable noun
Mushrooms are fungi that you can eat.
There are many types of wild mushrooms.
...eggs, bacon, sausage, and mushrooms.
...mushroom omelette.
2. See also button mushroom
3. verb
If something such as an industry or a place mushrooms, it grows or comes into existence very quickly.
The media training industry has mushroomed over the past decade. [VERB]
A town of a few hundred thousand people mushroomed to a crowded city of 2 million. [V + to/into]
Synonyms: expand, increase, spread, boom More Synonyms of mushroom
mushroominguncountable noun
...the mushrooming of commercial art galleries in Barcelona and Madrid.
mushroom in British English
(ˈmʌʃruːm, -rʊm)
noun
1.
a.
the fleshy spore-producing body of any of various basidiomycetous fungi, typically consisting of a cap (pileus) at the end of a stem arising from an underground mycelium. Some species, such as the field mushroom, are edible
Compare pileus, toadstool
b.
(as modifier)
mushroom soup
2.
the fungus producing any of these structures
3.
a.
something resembling a mushroom in shape or rapid growth
b.
(as modifier)
mushroom expansion
verb(intransitive)
4.
to grow rapidly
demand mushroomed overnight
5.
to assume a mushroom-like shape
6.
to gather mushrooms
Word origin
C15: from Old French mousseron, from Late Latin mussiriō, of obscure origin
mushroom in American English
(ˈmʌʃˌrum; ˈmʌʃˌrʊm)
noun
1.
a.
any of various rapidly growing, fleshy fungi, typically having a stalk capped with an umbrellalike top; esp., a gill or pore fungus
b.
the fruiting body of such a fungus
c.
an edible fruiting body of such a fungus
2.
anything like a mushroom in shape or rapid growth
adjective
3.
of or made with mushrooms
4.
like a mushroom in shape or rapid growth
a mushroom cloud
verb intransitive
5.
to hunt for and gather wild mushrooms
6.
to grow or spread rapidly
7.
to flatten out at the end so as to resemble a mushroom
Word origin
ME muscheron < OFr moisseron < LL mussirio (gen. mussirionis)