*seed*

n. The seed of the anise; also, a cordial prepared from it. “Oil of aniseed.” Brande & C. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. the small oval seed of the sesame plant.
Syn. -- sesame seed. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. Canary seed, hemp, millet or other small seeds used for feeding caged birds. [ 1913 Webster ]

{ }. (Bot.) The bitter fruit of Cola acuminata, which is nearly as large as a chestnut, and furnishes a stimulant, which is used in medicine. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

n. The common rape or cole. [ 1913 Webster ]

{ or , usually collectively, } n. The seed of the cotton plant. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

. A meal made from hulled cotton seeds after the oil has been expressed. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

. A fixed, semidrying oil extracted from cottonseed. It is pale yellow when pure (sp. gr., .92-.93). and is extensively used in soap making, in cookery, and as an adulterant of other oils. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

n. The seed of the flax; linseed. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. Any strange sight. Wright. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A person who looks or stares gapingly. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

To buy gapeseed, or
To sow gapeseed, to stare idly or in idle wonderment, instead of attending to business. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

n. (Bot.) Dog's-tail grass. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The offspring of a hag. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. a rural, unsophisticated person; also used in an extended sense for one who is not very intelligent or uninterested in culture.
Syn. -- yokel, rube, hick, yahoo, bumpkin, chawbacon. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

2. Seed from grass, especially that which falls out of hay. [ PJC ]

n. (Bot.) A climbing plant of the genus Cardiospermum, having round seeds which are marked with a spot like a heart. Loudon. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ OE. lin flax + seed. See Linen. ] (Bot.) The seeds of flax, from which linseed oil is obtained. [ Written also lintseed. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

Linseed cake, the solid mass or cake which remains when oil is expressed from flaxseed. --
Linseed meal, linseed cake reduced to powder. --
Linseed oil, oil obtained by pressure from flaxseed. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. See Linseed. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Bot.) A perennial herb (Phryma Leptostachya), having slender seedlike fruits. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Cf. G. magsamen. ] (Bot.) The seed of the opium poppy. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Bot.) A climbing plant of the genus Menispermum; -- so called from the crescentlike form of the seeds. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Bot.) (a) Seed from which oil is expressed, as the castor bean; also, the plant yielding such seed. See Castor bean. (b) A cruciferous herb (Camelina sativa). (c) The sesame. [ 1913 Webster ]

n.; pl. Seed or Seeds [ OE. seed, sed, AS. s&aemacr_;d, fr. sāwan to sow; akin to D. zaad seed, G. saat, Icel. sāð, saeði, Goth. manasēþs seed of men, world. See Sow to scatter seed, and cf. Colza. ] 1. (Bot.) (a) A ripened ovule, consisting of an embryo with one or more integuments, or coverings; as, an apple seed; a currant seed. By germination it produces a new plant. (b) Any small seedlike fruit, though it may consist of a pericarp, or even a calyx, as well as the seed proper; as, parsnip seed; thistle seed. [ 1913 Webster ]

And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself. Gen. i. 11. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ The seed proper has an outer and an inner coat, and within these the kernel or nucleus. The kernel is either the embryo alone, or the embryo inclosed in the albumen, which is the material for the nourishment of the developing embryo. The scar on a seed, left where the stem parted from it, is called the hilum, and the closed orifice of the ovule, the micropyle. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Physiol.) The generative fluid of the male; semen; sperm; -- not used in the plural. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. That from which anything springs; first principle; original; source; as, the seeds of virtue or vice. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. The principle of production. [ 1913 Webster ]

Praise of great acts he scatters as a seed,
Which may the like in coming ages breed. Waller. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. Progeny; offspring; children; descendants; as, the seed of Abraham; the seed of David. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ In this sense the word is applied to one person, or to any number collectively, and admits of the plural form, though rarely used in the plural. [ 1913 Webster ]

6. Race; generation; birth. [ 1913 Webster ]

Of mortal seed they were not held. Waller. [ 1913 Webster ]

Seed bag (Artesian well), a packing to prevent percolation of water down the bore hole. It consists of a bag encircling the tubing and filled with flax seed, which swells when wet and fills the space between the tubing and the sides of the hole. --
Seed bud (Bot.), the germ or rudiment of the plant in the embryo state; the ovule. --
Seed coat (Bot.), the covering of a seed. --
Seed corn, or
Seed grain (Bot.), corn or grain for seed. --
To eat the seed corn, To eat the corn which should be saved for seed, so as to forestall starvation; -- a desparate measure, since it only postpones disaster. Hence: any desparate action which creates a disastrous situation in the long-term, done in order to provide temporary relief. --
Seed down (Bot.), the soft hairs on certain seeds, as cotton seed. --
Seed drill. See 6th Drill, 2 (a). --
Seed eater (Zool.), any finch of the genera Sporophila, and Crithagra. They feed mainly on seeds. --
Seed gall (Zool.), any gall which resembles a seed, formed on the leaves of various plants, usually by some species of Phylloxera. --
Seed leaf (Bot.), a cotyledon. --
Seed lobe (Bot.), a cotyledon; a seed leaf. --
Seed oil, oil expressed from the seeds of plants. --
Seed oyster, a young oyster, especially when of a size suitable for transplantation to a new locality. --
Seed pearl, a small pearl of little value. --
Seed plat, or
Seed plot, the ground on which seeds are sown, to produce plants for transplanting; a nursery. --
Seed stalk (Bot.), the stalk of an ovule or seed; a funicle. --
Seed tick (Zool.), one of several species of ticks resembling seeds in form and color. --
Seed vessel (Bot.), that part of a plant which contains the seeds; a pericarp. --
Seed weevil (Zool.), any one of numerous small weevils, especially those of the genus Apion, which live in the seeds of various plants. --
Seed wool, cotton wool not yet cleansed of its seeds. [ Southern U.S. ] [ 1913 Webster +PJC ]

v. i. 1. To sow seed. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To shed the seed. Mortimer. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To grow to maturity, and to produce seed. [ 1913 Webster ]

Many interests have grown up, and seeded, and twisted their roots in the crevices of many wrongs. Landor. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Seeded; p. pr. & vb. n. Seeding. ] 1. To sprinkle with seed; to plant seeds in; to sow; as, to seed a field. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To cover thinly with something scattered; to ornament with seedlike decorations. [ 1913 Webster ]

A sable mantle seeded with waking eyes. B. Jonson. [ 1913 Webster ]

To seed down, to sow with grass seed. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Bot.) (a) A capsule. (b) A plant (Ludwigia alternifolia) which has somewhat cubical or box-shaped capsules. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A sweet cake or cooky containing aromatic seeds, as caraway. Tusser. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A seedlip. [ Prov. Eng. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n. One who, or that which, sows or plants seed. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The quality or state of being seedy, shabby, or worn out; a state of wretchedness or exhaustion. [ Colloq. ] G. Eliot. [ 1913 Webster ]

What is called seediness, after a debauch, is a plain proof that nature has been outraged. J. S. Blackie. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A species of lac. See the Note under Lac. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Without seed or seeds. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Bot.) A plant reared from the seed, as distinguished from one propagated by layers, buds, or the like. [ 1913 Webster ]

{ } n. [ AS. s&aemacr_;dleáp; s&aemacr_;d seed + leáp basket. ] A vessel in which a sower carries the seed to be scattered. [ Prov. Eng. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

See Seedsman. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Seedtime. [ Obs. ] Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

n.; pl. Seedsmen 1. A sower; one who sows or scatters seed. [ 1913 Webster ]

The seedsman
Upon the slime and ooze scatters his grain. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A person who deals in seeds. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ AS. s&aemacr_;dtīma. ] The season proper for sowing. [ 1913 Webster ]

While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night, shall not cease. Gen. viii. 22. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ Compar. Seedier superl. Seediest. ] 1. Abounding with seeds; bearing seeds; having run to seeds. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Having a peculiar flavor supposed to be derived from the weeds growing among the vines; -- said of certain kinds of French brandy. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Old and worn out; exhausted; spiritless; also, poor and miserable looking; shabbily clothed; shabby looking; as, he looked seedy; a seedy coat. [ Colloq. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

Little Flanigan here . . . is a little seedy, as we say among us that practice the law. Goldsmith. [ 1913 Webster ]

Seedy toe, an affection of a horse's foot, in which a cavity filled with horn powder is formed between the laminae and the wall of the hoof. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Bot.) A plant (Echinospermum Lappula) of the Borage family, with small blue flowers and prickly nutlets. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The seed of sesame. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Tick the insect + seed; cf. G. wanzensamen, literally, bug seed. ] 1. A seed or fruit resembling in shape an insect, as that of certain plants. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Bot.) (a) Same as Coreopsis. (b) Any plant of the genus Corispermum, plants of the Goosefoot family. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Bot.) Any plant of the genus Geissois, having seeds overlapping like tiles on a roof. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

{ n., or . (Bot.) The seeds of a small tree (Croton Pavana) common in the Malay Archipelago. These seeds furnish croton oil, like those of Croton Tiglium. [ Written also tilly. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

(a) The seed of sesame. (b) The seed of an African asteraceous plant (Guizotia abyssinica), yielding a bland fixed oil used in medicine. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

n. (Bot.) Any one of several plants, as Artemisia santonica, and Chenopodium anthelminticum, whose seeds have the property of expelling worms from the stomach and intestines. [ 1913 Webster ]

Wormseed mustard, a slender, cruciferous plant (Erysinum cheiranthoides) having small lanceolate leaves. [ 1913 Webster ]