Verb seeds sprouting in the spring Potatoes will sprout in the bag if kept in a warm place. The garden is sprouting weeds. The tree is already sprouting leaves. He sprouted a beard since the last time I saw him. She dreamed that her boss had sprouted horns. Hair sprouted on his face. Noun he earned the admiration of the neighborhood sprouts when he showed them how to make a slingshot the raspberry bushes began sending out sprouts in early spring See More
Recent Examples on the Web
Verb
Higher aims will come, and rivalries of some sort perhaps will sprout. Dom Amore, Hartford Courant, 9 Sep. 2022 Other clonal aspen groves exist—a quirk of the trees’ unusual horizontal roots, which sprout their own stems—but very few even come close to rivaling Pando in mass. Katherine J. Wu, The Atlantic, 15 Aug. 2022 Home gardens began to sprout all over the country to help with war-rationing efforts. Katlyn Moncada, Better Homes & Gardens, 30 Aug. 2022 Once inside, the spores sprout long tendrils called mycelia that eventually reach into the brain and release chemicals that make the unfortunate host the fungi’s zombie slave. Jennifer Ouellette, Ars Technica, 19 Aug. 2022 Sometimes, from that boredom, things sprout up that are surprising and weird and fun. Amanda Petrusich, The New Yorker, 31 July 2022 Other plants have evolved to release their seeds during a fire so more plants will sprout afterward. Sarah Lapidus, The Arizona Republic, 4 July 2022 Suckers are branches that sprout from the rootstock below the graft union.oregonlive, 6 Aug. 2022 The Netherlands has specifically banned the mushrooms—but its laws don't mention the psilocybin-containing lumps of underground material that eventually sprout them, better known as truffles. Simon Makin, Scientific American, 20 July 2022
Noun
Willows sprout from beaver dams, having taken root where the animals anchored them.The Salt Lake Tribune, 6 Sep. 2022 Picturesque medieval hill towns sprout from almost every crag, but on closer inspection, a Gothic atmosphere hangs over many, tilting the cultural balance from the Mediterranean toward the Eastern European. Tony Perrottet, Smithsonian Magazine, 26 Aug. 2022 To get to iron oxide, G. sulfurreducens and other Geobacter species do something very curious: sprout wire-like tendrils called pili (pilus for one). Miriam Fauzia, Popular Mechanics, 15 Aug. 2022 Seeds sprout in particular ways that depend on where and how each species evolved. Beth Botts, Chicago Tribune, 13 Aug. 2022 If the fury over CRT grew from the United States’ refusal to reckon with its own history, a culture war over ESG will be nurtured by the same elements but sprout from different soil on an adjacent plot. Kate Aronoff, The New Republic, 23 May 2022 Fifty-two years after mankind’s giant leap, a small sprout has taken root in lunar soil inside a Florida lab symbolizing the blossoming of a new-moon era. Joe Mario Pedersen, Orlando Sentinel, 14 May 2022 Most California strawberry plants sprout constantly over the course of the season — little green berries sitting alongside fat red ones, nestled among the leaves. Sam Deanstaff Writer, Los Angeles Times, 26 July 2022 In many depictions, grasslands appear as an early stage in this progression that will—given time and barring outside interference—eventually sprout trees. Julia Rosen, The Atlantic, 25 July 2022 See More
Word History
Etymology
Verb
Middle English spruten, from Old English -sprūtan; akin to Old High German spriozan to sprout, Lithuanian sprausti to squeeze, thrust