seed
verbEtymology
] From Middle English seed, sede, side, from Old English sēd, sǣd (“seed, that which is sown”), from Proto-West Germanic *sād, from Proto-Germanic *sēdą, from Proto-Indo-European *seh₁- (“to sow, throw”). Cognates Cognate with Yola zeade (“seed”), North Frisian sead, seed, siad, Siid, sädj, säid (“seed”), Saterland Frisian Säid (“seed”), West Frisian sied (“seed”), Dutch zaad (“seed”), German Saat (“seed; sowing”), Limburgish zaod (“seed”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, and Norwegian Nynorsk sæd (“seed”), Faroese and Icelandic sáð (“seed”), Swedish säd (“seed”), Gothic *𐍃𐌴𐌸𐍃 (*sēþs, “seed”); also Latin serō (“to sow, plant”), Latvian sēt (“to sow”), Lithuanian sėti (“to sow”), Bulgarian се́я (séja, “to sow, plant”), Czech sít (“to sow”), Macedonian сее (see, “to sow”), Polish siać (“to sow”), Russian се́ять (séjatʹ, “to sow”), Serbo-Croatian се̏јати, sȅjati, си̏јати, sȉjati (“to sow”), Slovak siať (“to sow”), Slovene sejáti (“to sow”), Ukrainian сі́яти (síjaty, “to sow”). More at sow.
11 senses
- 1To plant or sow an area with seeds.
- 2To shed seeds (refers to plants)
- 3To cover thinly with something scattered; to ornament…
- 4To start; to provide, assign or determine the initial…
- 5To allocate a seeding to a competitor.
- 6To leave (files) available for others to download…
- 7To be qualified to compete, especially in a quarter-final…
- 8To scatter small particles within (a cloud or airmass)…
- 9To produce seed.
- 10To grow to maturity.
- 11To ejaculate inside the penetratee during intercourse…
To plant or sow an area with seeds.
- I seeded my lawn with bluegrass.
To shed seeds (refers to plants)
- These poppies have not seeded themselves yet.
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: […]1604 March 25 (first performance; Gregorian calendar), B[en] Jon[son], “The Pegme at Fen-church”, in B. Jon: His Part of King James His Royall and Magnificent Entertainement through His Honorable Cittie of London, Thurseday the 15. of March. 1603. […], London: […] V[alentine] S[immes] [and George Eld] for Edward Blount, published 1604, →OCLC, signature B, recto:
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.
1 more example
- The programmer seeded fresh, uncorrupted data into the database before running unit tests.
- 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.1979 July 2, “Reflection on the Seedings Fills Pause at Wimbledon”, in The New York Times:
Internet To leave (files) available for others to download through peer-to-peer file sharing protocols (e.g. BitTorrent).
To be qualified to compete, especially in a quarter-final, semi-final, or final.
- The tennis player seeded into the quarters.
Climatology, Meteorology, Natural sciences 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.
To produce seed.
To grow to maturity.