seed

noun

1. (countable)Any propagative portion of a plant which may be sown, such as true seeds, seed-like fruits, tubers, or bulbs.

   “[…] for hungry birds have devoured ſeeds, and having moiſtened and warmed them in their bellies, a little after have dunged in the forky twiſtes of Trees, and together with their dung excluded the ſeed whole which erſt they had ſwallowed: and ſometimes it brings forth there where they dung it, […]”

2. (countable)Any propagative portion of a plant which may be sown, such as true seeds, seed-like fruits, tubers, or bulbs.
3. (countable)Any propagative portion of a plant which may be sown, such as true seeds, seed-like fruits, tubers, or bulbs.

   “If you plant a seed in the spring, you may have a pleasant surprise in the autumn.”

   “The exiguity and ſmallneſſe of ſome ſeeds extending to large productions is one of the magnalities of nature, ſomewhat illuſtrating the work of the Creation, and vaſt production from nothing.”

   “Plant breeding is always a numbers game.[…]The wild species we use are rich in genetic variation, […]. In addition, we are looking for rare alleles, so the more plants we try, the better. These rarities may be new mutations, or they can be existing ones that are neutral—or are even selected against—in a wild population. A good example is mutations that disrupt seed dispersal, leaving the seeds on the heads long after they are ripe.”

4. (collective, uncountable)An amount of seeds that cannot be readily counted.

   “The entire field was covered with geese eating the freshly sown seed.”

5. (countable)A fragment of coral.
6. (uncountable)Semen.

   “A man must use his seed to start and raise a family.”

   “And if any mans seede of copulation goe out from him, then hee shall wash all his flesh in water, and bee vncleane vntill the Euen.”

7. (countable, figuratively)A precursor.

   “the seed of an idea”

   “Which idea was the seed (idea)?”

   “Sometimes it takes more than you have / To benefit from what you know / Sometimes you keep pouring water / But the seeds don't grow, woah”

8. (countable, uncountable)The initial state, condition or position of a changing, growing or developing process; the ultimate precursor in a defined chain of precursors.

   “The team with the best regular season record receives the top seed in the conference tournament.”

9. (countable, uncountable)The initial state, condition or position of a changing, growing or developing process; the ultimate precursor in a defined chain of precursors.

   “The rookie was a surprising top seed.”

10. (countable, uncountable)The initial state, condition or position of a changing, growing or developing process; the ultimate precursor in a defined chain of precursors.

    “If you use the same seed you will get exactly the same pattern of numbers.”

    “As suggested in [3], space can be saved by using a deterministic pseudo random number generator (PRNG) and storing only the seed of that PRNG.”

11. (countable, uncountable)The initial state, condition or position of a changing, growing or developing process; the ultimate precursor in a defined chain of precursors.

    “Seeds are Minecraft's way of generating terrain. Each biome you spawn in is determined by the seed. With a custom seed, you can have a desert biome right next to a mesa biome.”

12. (Internet, countable, uncountable)The initial state, condition or position of a changing, growing or developing process; the ultimate precursor in a defined chain of precursors.

    “The latest seed has attracted a lot of users in our online community.”

13. (archaic, countable, uncountable)Offspring, descendants, progeny.

    “the seed of Abraham”

    “Next him king Leyr in happie peace long raind, / But had no issue male him to succeed, / But three faire daughters, which were well vptraind, / In all that seemed fit for kingly seed […]”

14. (countable, uncountable)Race; generation; birth.

    “Of mortal seed they were not held.”

15. (countable, uncountable)A small particle, bubble, or imperfection that serves as a nucleation point for some process.
16. (countable, uncountable)A small bubble formed in imperfectly fused glass.
17. (US, countable, slang, uncountable)A child.

    “Seeds know what time it is, like it's time for Teletubbies”

verb

1. (transitive)To plant or sow an area with seeds.

   “I seeded my lawn with bluegrass.”

2. (reflexive)To shed seeds (refers to plants)

   “These poppies have not seeded themselves yet.”

3. (transitive)To cover thinly with something scattered; to ornament with seedlike decorations.

   “[…] AGRYPNIA, or Vigilance, in yellovv, a ſable mantle, ſeeded vvith vvaking eies, and ſiluer fringe: […]”

4. (transitive)To start; to provide, assign or determine the initial resources for, position of, state of.

   “A venture capitalist seeds young companies.”

   “The tournament coordinator will seed the starting lineup with the best competitors from the qualifying round.”

   “The programmer seeded fresh, uncorrupted data into the database before running unit tests.”

5. To allocate a seeding to a competitor.

   “Everybody likes to second‐guess computers, including who seed the pros. Nothing could have better exposed the vulnerability of the computer seeding than the spectacle of clay‐court experts looking like weekend hackers on grass.”

6. (Internet, transitive)To leave (files) available for others to download through peer-to-peer file sharing protocols (e.g. BitTorrent).
7. (intransitive)To be qualified to compete, especially in a quarter-final, semi-final, or final.

   “The tennis player seeded into the quarters.”

8. To scatter small particles within (a cloud or airmass) in order to trigger the formation of rain.

   “A number of clouds were seeded to help provide rain to a drought-stricken area.”

9. (intransitive)To produce seed.
10. (intransitive)To grow to maturity.
11. (slang, vulgar)To ejaculate inside the penetratee during intercourse, especially in the rectum.
12. (dialectal, form-of, participle, past)simple past and past participle of see

    “Presently a rioting noise was heard without. Starting up, the landlord cried, "That's the Grampus's crew. I seed her reported in the offing this morning; a three years' voyage, and a full ship. Hurrah, boys; now we'll have the latest news from the Feegees."”

name

1. A surname.