Definition of "bloom"

bloom¹

/bluːm/

noun
countable and uncountable, plural blooms
1. A blossom; the flower of a plant; an expanded bud.
  Quotations
  the rich blooms and enamelled vegetation of the tropics
  1843, William H[ickling] Prescott, History of the Conquest of Mexico, […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), New York, N.Y.: Harper and Brothers, […]
2. (collective) Flowers.
3. (uncountable) The opening of flowers in general; the state of blossoming or of having the flowers open.
  Quotations
  sight of vernal bloom
  1667, John Milton, “Book III”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […]; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873,
  O, not for thee the glow, the bloom,⁠Who changest not in any gale,⁠Nor branding summer suns availTo touch thy thousand years of gloom: […]
  1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], canto II
4. (figuratively) A state or time of beauty, freshness, and vigor; an opening to higher perfection, analogous to that of buds into blossoms.
  Quotations
  every successive mother had transmitted to her child a fainter bloom, a more delicate and briefer beauty.
  1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter, a Romance, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields
  We can have some more / Nature is a whore / Bruises on the fruit / Tender age in bloom
  1992, “In Bloom”, in Kurt Cobain (lyrics), Nevermind, performed by Nirvana
5. Rosy colour; the flush or glow on a person's cheek.
6. The delicate, powdery coating upon certain growing or newly-gathered fruits or leaves, as on grapes, plums, etc.
  Quotations
  The bloom on blueberries is the dusty powder that protects them from the Sun; it does not rinse off.
  2010, Donna Pliner Rodnitzky, Low-Carb Smoothies
7. Anything giving an appearance of attractive freshness.
  Quotations
  a new, fresh, brilliant world, with all the bloom upon it
  1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 2, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848
8. (countable, uncountable) An algal bloom.
  Quotations
  Where upwellings or other sources of nutrients allow Ehux to abound, it can proliferate, as blooms, to the point that the ocean turns milky.
  2018, Tim Flannery, Europe: A Natural History, page 28
9. The clouded appearance which varnish sometimes takes upon the surface of a picture.
10. A yellowish deposit or powdery coating which appears on well-tanned leather.
11. (mineralogy) A bright-hued variety of some minerals.
12. (cooking) A white area of cocoa butter that forms on the surface of chocolate when warmed and cooled.
13. (television) An undesirable halo effect that may occur when a very bright region is displayed next to a very dark region of the screen.
14. (video games) The increase in bullet spread over time as a gun's trigger is kept held.
  Quotations
  Bloom does add a skill element, burst firing the weapon instead of holding the trigger down, but it's questionable if adding a skill element like that is the actual intent of bloom, because that’s a pretty lame and linear skill element to add, requiring people to tap the button instead of hold it down.
  2018 February 21, “Bullet Bloom: An FPS Tragedy”, in CritPoints‎

bloom²

/bluːm/

verb
third-person singular simple present blooms, present participle blooming, simple past and past participle bloomed
1. (transitive) To cause to blossom; to make flourish.
  Quotations
  Charitable affection bloomed them.
  1594–1597, Richard Hooker, edited by J[ohn] S[penser], Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie, […], London: […] Will[iam] Stansby [for Matthew Lownes], published 1611, (please specify the page)
2. (transitive) To bestow a bloom upon; to make blooming or radiant.
  Quotations
  The Tree of Life […] blooming Ambrosial Fruit Of vegetable Gold.
  1667, John Milton, “Book IV”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […]; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873,
  Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they? / Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,— / While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day, / And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue; [...]
  1819 September 19, John Keats, “To Autumn”, in Lamia, Isabella, the Eve of St. Agnes, and Other Poems, London: […] [Thomas Davison] for Taylor and Hessey, […], published 1820, stanza 3, page 138
3. (intransitive) Of a plant, to produce blooms; to open its blooms.
  Quotations
  A flower which once / In Paradise, fast by the tree of life, / Began to bloom.
  1667, John Milton, “Book I”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […]; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873,
4. (intransitive, figuratively) Of a person, business, etc, to flourish; to be in a state of healthful, growing youth and vigour; to show beauty and freshness.
  Quotations
  Nurse Cramer had a cute nose and a radiant, blooming complexion dotted with fetching sprays of adorable freckles that Yossarian detested.
  1961 November 10, Joseph Heller, “The Soldier in White”, in Catch-22 […], New York, N.Y.: Simon and Schuster, page 171
  The attacking three have also been allowed to bloom. Liberated from deep defensive duties Eden Hazard has become more expressive, more obviously, flashily complete.
  2017 May 13, Barney Ronay, “Antonio Conte’s brilliance has turned Chelsea’s pop-up team into champions”, in the Guardian‎
  A better country blooms to view, / Beneath a brighter sky.
  a. 1788, John Logan, A Tale
5. (cooking) To bring out the flavor of a spice by cooking it in oil.
6. (intransitive, cooking, of chocolate) To develop a layer of bloom (white, spotty areas of cocoa butter) due to repeated warming and cooling.

bloom³

/bluːm/

noun
plural blooms
1. The spongy mass of metal formed in a furnace by the smelting process.
  Quotations
  These metallic bodies gradually increasing in volume finally conglomerate into a larger mass, the bloom, which is extracted from the furnace with tongs.
  1957, H.R. Schubert, History of the British Iron and Steel Industry, page 26

Definition of "bloom"

bloom1

noun

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bloom2

verb

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bloom3

noun

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bloom¹

bloom²

bloom³