I. bud 1 /bʌd/ BrE AmE noun [countable]
[ Sense 1: Date: 1300-1400 ; Origin: Origin unknown. ]
[ Sense 2: Date: 1800-1900 ; Origin: buddy ]
1 . a young tightly rolled-up flower or leaf before it opens:
rose buds
in bud (=having buds but no flowers yet)
come into bud (=start to produce buds)
2 . especially American English spoken ↑ buddy :
Hey, bud, how’s it going?
⇨ ↑ cotton bud , ↑ taste bud , ⇨ nip something in the bud at ↑ nip 1 (3)
II. bud 2 BrE AmE verb ( past tense and past participle budded , present participle budding ) [intransitive]
to produce buds