Definition of "bud" []

• Botany A small protuberance on a stem or branch, sometimes enclosed in protective scales and containing an undeveloped shoot, leaf, or flower. (noun)
• Botany The stage or condition of having buds: branches in full bud. (noun)
• Biology An asexual reproductive structure, as in yeast or a hydra, that consists of an outgrowth capable of developing into a new individual. (noun)
• Biology A small, rounded organic part, such as a taste bud, that resembles a plant bud. (noun)
• One that is not yet fully developed: the bud of a new idea. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Mental illness can lead to poverty and crime, and nipping that in the bud is a very proactive decision by the government."
• "The stalks often take a curve, a twist from some current of air or some impediment, and the fine stems will turn and bend in all sorts of graceful ways, but the bud is always held erect when the time comes for it to blossom."
• "Now he does the same, not to protect national security, but some bud from the 'hood in Chicago."