mushroom

A fungus that grows on soil or wood, often with a round top on a short stem.

• A mushroom grew beside the tree.
• We found mushrooms in the damp wood.
• Some mushrooms are poisonous.

Common phrases: wild mushroom, edible mushroom, poisonous mushroom, mushroom species

The part of a fungus that grows above ground, often with a cap and stem; some are eaten.

• I added mushrooms to the soup.
• The mushroom had a wide brown cap.
• She sliced three mushrooms for the sauce.

Similar words: shroom, mushrump

Common phrases: mushroom cap, mushroom soup, sliced mushroom, mushroom stem

To grow or increase very quickly.

• Costs mushroomed last year.
• The village has mushroomed into a busy town.
• Online shops are mushrooming across the country.

How to use it: mushroom into something (The small dispute mushroomed into a national debate.); mushroom from A to B (The population mushroomed from two thousand to twenty thousand.)

Similar words: expand, balloon, grow rapidly

Opposites: shrink

Common phrases: mushroom into something, mushroom overnight, mushroom rapidly

To collect edible fungi in the countryside.

• We mushroom in these woods every autumn.
• They went mushrooming after the rain.
• She mushroomed with her grandfather as a child.

Common phrases: mushroom in woods, mushroom with someone

Shaped like a fungus with a round cap, or similar to one in growth or feel.

• A mushroom cloud rose above the explosion.
• The smoke took on a mushroom shape.
• The town's mushroom growth surprised its older residents.

Common phrases: mushroom cloud, mushroom shape, mushroom growth