bloom1
/bluːm
/noun
1A flower, especially one cultivated for its beauty: an exotic bloom...
- Now that it has begun flowering, the blooms are dropping as soon as they open.
- Though summer may boast more blooms, the flower bulbs of spring hold a special place in our affections.
- ‘Much of the drama and beauty of exotic blooms is in their unusual, long stems,’ she notes.
Synonyms
flower, blossom, floweret;
flowering, blossoming, florescence, efflorescence
1.1 [mass noun] The state or period of flowering: the apple trees were in bloom...
- The couple will also have the opportunity to meet with Chinese leaders who played a role in restoring bilateral ties and view flowering cherry trees in bloom in Beijing.
- There were some flowering plants in bloom to be had but most of them were sad things, showing signs of weather damage.
- Trees were not in bloom in early to mid-February and were in full bloom by early to mid-March.
1.2 [mass noun] The state or period of greatest beauty, freshness, or vigour: a young girl, still in the bloom of youth...
- Egg uses the same viewpoint to depict two girls in the bloom of youth, sitting in a railway carriage before a coastal landscape.
- Some ran the course and others who are no longer in the bloom of youth cycled the miles just to prove a point.
- Travis openly wonders why, of all her sisters, she survived the seeming tragedy of being shut out of show business while still in the bloom of youth.
Synonyms
prime, perfection, acme, zenith, peak, height, heyday, flourishing, strength, vigour;
salad days
1.3 [in singular] A youthful or healthy glow in a person’s complexion: her face had lost its usual bloom...
- Nothing could be more delicate than the blond complexion - its bloom set off by the powdered hair.
- She prided herself in a more particular manner on the lovely bloom and charming delicacy of her complexion, which had procured her the envy of one sex, and the admiration of the other.
- The old face, calm and pleasant as ever; the complexion, quite juvenile in its bloom and clearness.
Synonyms
lustre, sheen, glow, radiance, freshness, perfection;
blush, flush, rosiness, pinkness, redness, ruddiness, colour
1.4 [mass noun] A full, bright sound in a recording: the remastering has lost some of the bloom of the strings...
- The brightest bloom in the bouquet of sound bites was ‘failure does not equate to a crime.’
2A delicate powdery surface deposit on certain fresh fruits, leaves, or stems: the bloom on a plum...
- This waxy layer forms the grape's typically whitish surface, called the bloom.
- Similarly, recent research by colleagues at Cornell has shown that berries are highly susceptible from bloom until shortly after fruit set, but become much more resistant afterwards.
- Paraffin wax is purposely added to a mixture to create a surface bloom which acts as a barrier to sun-checking and oxidation.
2.1 [mass noun] A greyish-white appearance on chocolate caused by cocoa butter rising to the surface.Hartel's research team has come up with a theory to explain how visual fat bloom develops in well-tempered chocolates....
- Chocolate bloom is the tell-tale sign that chocolate has not been stored correctly.
- A new multi-mineral ingredient can improve fat bloom resistance in chocolate, while boosting the mineral content of the products, according to the manufacturer.
2.2 short for algal bloom.The nutrients trigger blooms of microscopic algae known as phytoplankton....
- Plankton blooms usually follow coastal upwellings because of the abundant nutrients that come with it.
- Future cruises through eddies in the region may determine the factors that stimulate the plankton blooms.
verb
1 [no object] Produce flowers; be in flower: a chalk pit where cowslips bloomed...
- Clematis viticella ‘Etoile Violette’ is still blooming, the first flowers opened in July.
- Nong Nooch Gardens recently announced that the flower was blooming only after 5 five years and opened the gardens for a special viewing by residents.
- You can't force a flower to bloom by ripping the petals open.
Synonyms
blossom, flower, be in blossom/flower, come into flower/blossom, open, open out, bud, sprout, burgeon, mature
1.1Come into or be in full beauty or health; flourish: the children had bloomed in the soft Devonshire air...
- That range of rewarding possibilities can be further assisted in blooming to its full glory if comparisons with other transport modes can be made too.
- Calandra was 14 and blooming with beauty that my mother alone was known to possess.
- As my health bloomed, I also saw many positive changes in my family's health as they gradually embraced this way of eating.
Synonyms
flourish, thrive, be in good health, get on well, get ahead, prosper, succeed, be successful, progress, make progress, make headway, burgeon
informal be in the pink, be fine and dandy, go great guns
1.2(Of fire, colour, or light) become radiant and glowing: colour bloomed in her cheeks...
- Colour bloomed in Nicole's cheeks and her brow creased slightly in worry.
- Colour bloomed in Kitten's cheeks and hands, a healthy pink that suddenly made her look like a normal child.
- A glow of brilliant white light bloomed from the tips of his fingers.
2 [with object] technical Coat (a lens) with a special surface layer so as to reduce reflection from its surface.Reflections of white light from a bloomed lens then appear to be faint purple....
- The key features of the camera are highlighted: a bloomed lens and a high speed focal plane shutter in an easy to use and inexpensive camera.
- Camera effects like blooming, lens flare, heat shimmer, light rays, depth of field, and haze create TV-quality presentation.
Phrases
the bloom is off the rose
Origin
Middle English: from Old Norse blóm 'flower, blossom', blómi 'prosperity', blómar 'flowers'.
The early word for ‘flower’ in English was blossom. Old Norse blóm ‘flower, blossom’, was the source of bloom in English, which shares a base with the verb blow (Old English) ‘to burst into flower’, now most often met in overblown (early 17th century). A bloomer (late 19th century) is from the use of blooming for ‘bloody’ in blooming error and is thought to be Australian prison slang. In the 1930s another bloomer entered the vocabulary as a name for a type of loaf but it is not clear where from.
Rhymes
bloom2
/bluːm/noun
1A mass of iron, steel, or other metal hammered or rolled into a thick bar for further working: an 18-foot-long steel bloom emerges red-hot from a new reheat furnace...
- Once the iron had cooled and set, a file was drawn over the surface to gauge the hardness of the iron bloom to see if it had any steel in it - the file being of a known quality itself.
- The pillar is believed to have been made by forging together a series of disc-shaped iron blooms.
- The bloom contained iron slag and particles of charcoal entrapped in the metal.
1.1 historical An unworked mass of puddled iron.To recreate the ancient way of making wrought iron, two Swedish blacksmiths have smelted a bloom of iron and begin to shape it into a bar....
- The bloom, still at bright red heat, was then passed through rolling mills, becoming more elongated and thinner in section after each pass, and finished as puddled iron bar.
- The bloom was repeatedly re-heated and hammered to remove most of the molten slag.
verb [with object] (usually as noun blooming)
Make (iron, steel, etc.) into a bloom.A steel slab comprising the above constituents is produced by preparing the steel in a converter followed by either continuous casting or ingot making/blooming....
- In a blooming mill, a continuous-cast bloom is rolled into billets, reheated, and thereafter rolled and formed into various products in a steel bar mill or wire rod mill.
- The howl of blooming steel washed over us.
Origin
Old English blōma, of unknown origin.