bulb

[ buhlb ]

noun

1. Botany.
   1. a usually subterranean and often globular bud having fleshy leaves emergent at the top and a stem reduced to a flat disk, rooting from the underside, as in the onion and lily.
   2. a plant growing from such a bud.
2. any round, enlarged part, especially at the end of a cylindrical object:

   the bulb of a thermometer.

3. Electricity.
   1. the glass housing, in which a partial vacuum has been established, that contains the filament of an incandescent electric lamp.
   2. an incandescent or fluorescent electric lamp.
4. Anatomy. any of various small, bulb-shaped structures or protuberances:

   olfactory bulb; bulb of urethra.

5. medulla oblongata.
6. Building Trades. a rounded thickening at the toe of an angle iron or tee.
7. Nautical. a cylindrical or spherical prominence at the forefoot of certain vessels.
8. Photography. a shutter setting in which the shutter remains open as long as the shutter release is depressed. : B

bulb

/ bʌlb /

noun

1. See corm
   a rounded organ of vegetative reproduction in plants such as the tulip and onion: a flattened stem bearing a central shoot surrounded by fleshy nutritive inner leaves and thin brown outer leaves Compare corm
2. a plant, such as a hyacinth or daffodil, that grows from a bulb
3. See light bulb
   See light bulb
4. a rounded part of an instrument such as a syringe or thermometer
5. anatomy a rounded expansion of a cylindrical organ or part, such as the medulla oblongata
6. Also calledbulbous bow a bulbous protuberance at the forefoot of a ship to reduce turbulence

bulb

/ bŭlb /

1. A rounded underground storage organ that contains the shoot of a new plant. A bulb consists of a short stem surrounded by fleshy scales (modified leaves) that store nourishment for the new plant. Tulips, lilies, and onions grow from bulbs.
2. Compare corm

Other Words From

• bulbed adjective
• bulbless adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of bulb¹

1560–70; < Latin bulbus < Greek bolbós onion, bulbous plant

Word History and Origins

Origin of bulb¹

C16: from Latin bulbus , from Greek bolbos onion

Example Sentences

Just one thing, however, if you live in the South, you might have to buy your bulbs and store them for about six weeks in your refrigerator, where they can be kept cold, but not freezing.

From Washington Post

The company is well known for its wide range of electronics offerings that include personal audio devices, smart bulbs, and electric toothbrushes.

From Popular-Science

Scratch the bulb, or bruise the green tops, and you should immediately smell the familiar oniony odor.

From Popular-Science

Winslow thinks of leeks as somewhere between a scallion and a bulb onion.

From Washington Post

Richard said he wanted to kiss Susan good night when he walked her to the door, but her mother had put a blindingly bright bulb in the porch light.

From Washington Post

One day, he took a monk with a cleanly shaven head and had him walk around a light bulb to demonstrate this theory.

From The Daily Beast

The trade in empty bottles should be as eyebrow-raising as the old Soviet dud-bulb biz.

From The Daily Beast

His bright idea turned out to be the incandescent light bulb, which he invented in 1880.

From The Daily Beast

Death waits for these things as a cement floor waits for a dropping light bulb.

From The Daily Beast

In 2007, the Bush administration signed a measure that would finally bring the light bulb into the 21st century.

From The Daily Beast

Bang went the fragile bulb, as it splintered into a thousand atoms, and the mercury shot in sparkling globules over the table.

From Project Gutenberg

Should it fail, the fluid can generally be pumped out by alternate compression of the tube and the bulb.

From Project Gutenberg

Then the tip end was broken off, and the bulb being a vacuum, the colored water was drawn into it, and filled the globe.

From Project Gutenberg

When, with returning fair weather, the atmospheric pressure increases, the water can no longer bulge or drop out of the bulb.

From Project Gutenberg

In this chair is a charge of high explosive and above it a glass bulb containing sulphuric acid.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• corn