mush·room
(mŭsh́rōōḿ, -rŏŏḿ)
[Alteration (influenced by room), of Middle English musheron, from Anglo-Norman moscheron, musherum, from Old French mousseron, from Medieval Latin musariō, musariōn-.]
noun
- Any of various fleshy fungi of the class Basidiomycota, characteristically having an umbrella-shaped cap borne on a stalk, especially any of the edible kinds, as those of the genus Agaricus.
- Something shaped like one of these fungi.
intransitive verb: -roomed, -room·ing, -rooms.
- To multiply, grow, or expand rapidly: The population mushroomed in the postwar decades.
- To swell or spread out into a shape similar to a mushroom.
adjective
- Relating to, consisting of, or containing mushrooms: mushroom sauce.
- Resembling mushrooms in rapidity of growth or evanescence: mushroom towns.