bulb
Botany.
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.
a plant growing from such a bud.
any round, enlarged part, especially at the end of a cylindrical object: the bulb of a thermometer.
Electricity.
the glass housing, in which a partial vacuum has been established, that contains the filament of an incandescent electric lamp.
an incandescent or fluorescent electric lamp.
Anatomy. any of various small, bulb-shaped structures or protuberances: olfactory bulb; bulb of urethra.
Building Trades. a rounded thickening at the toe of an angle iron or tee.
Nautical. a cylindrical or spherical prominence at the forefoot of certain vessels.
Photography. a shutter setting in which the shutter remains open as long as the shutter release is depressed. Symbol: B
Origin of bulb
1Other words from bulb
- bulbed, adjective
- bulbless, adjective
Words Nearby bulb
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
How to use bulb in a sentence
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.
The company is well known for its wide range of electronics offerings that include personal audio devices, smart bulbs, and electric toothbrushes.
Scratch the bulb, or bruise the green tops, and you should immediately smell the familiar oniony odor.
13 edible plants you can still find in the winter | By Tim MacWelch/Outdoor Life | December 1, 2020 | Popular-ScienceWinslow thinks of leeks as somewhere between a scallion and a bulb onion.
Onions, shallots, scallions and leeks are mostly interchangeable in recipes. Here’s how to use what you have. | Becky Krystal | November 23, 2020 | Washington PostRichard 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.
One day, he took a monk with a cleanly shaven head and had him walk around a light bulb to demonstrate this theory.
The trade in empty bottles should be as eyebrow-raising as the old Soviet dud-bulb biz.
His bright idea turned out to be the incandescent light bulb, which he invented in 1880.
Death waits for these things as a cement floor waits for a dropping light bulb.
American Dreams: Saul Bellow’s Masterpiece of Lamentation | Nathaniel Rich | July 27, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTIn 2007, the Bush administration signed a measure that would finally bring the light bulb into the 21st century.
The Chicken Littles Are Wrong: Environmental Regulations Always Spur Innovation | Daniel Gross | June 9, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTBang went the fragile bulb, as it splintered into a thousand atoms, and the mercury shot in sparkling globules over the table.
The Pit Town Coronet, Volume I (of 3) | Charles James WillsShould it fail, the fluid can generally be pumped out by alternate compression of the tube and the bulb.
A Manual of Clinical Diagnosis | James Campbell ToddThen the tip end was broken off, and the bulb being a vacuum, the colored water was drawn into it, and filled the globe.
The Boy Mechanic, Book 2 | VariousWhen, with returning fair weather, the atmospheric pressure increases, the water can no longer bulge or drop out of the bulb.
The Boy Mechanic, Book 2 | VariousIn this chair is a charge of high explosive and above it a glass bulb containing sulphuric acid.
Average Jones | Samuel Hopkins Adams
British Dictionary definitions for bulb
/ (bʌlb) /
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
a plant, such as a hyacinth or daffodil, that grows from a bulb
See light bulb
a rounded part of an instrument such as a syringe or thermometer
anatomy a rounded expansion of a cylindrical organ or part, such as the medulla oblongata
Also called: bulbous bow a bulbous protuberance at the forefoot of a ship to reduce turbulence
Origin of bulb
1Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Scientific definitions for bulb
[ bŭlb ]
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. Compare corm rhizome runner tuber.
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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