seed

Alternative forms

• sede (obsolete)

Noun

seed (countable and uncountable, plural seeds)

1. (countable, botany) A fertilized and ripened ovule, containing an embryonic plant.
3. (countable) Any small seed-like fruit.
   • 1658, Thomas Browne, “The Garden of Cyrus. […]. Chapter III.”, in Hydriotaphia, Urne-buriall, […] Together with The Garden of Cyrus, […], London: […] Hen[ry] Brome […], →OCLC, page 136:

     The exiguity and ſmallneſſe of ſome ſeeds extending to large productions is one of the magnalities of nature, ſomewhat illuſtrating the work of the Creation, and vaſt production from nothing.

   • 2013 May-June, David Van Tassel, Lee DeHaan, “Wild Plants to the Rescue”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3:

     Plant breeding is always a numbers game. […] The wild species we use are rich in genetic variation,  […] . In addition, we are looking for rare alleles, so the more plants we try, the better. These rarities may be new mutations, or they can be existing ones that are neutral—or are even selected against—in a wild population. A good example is mutations that disrupt seed dispersal, leaving the seeds on the heads long after they are ripe.

   If you plant a seed in the spring, you may have a pleasant surprise in the autumn.

4. (countable, agriculture) Any propagative portion of a plant which may be sown, such as true seeds, seed-like fruits, tubers, or bulbs.
   • 1669, John Baptiſta Porta, chapter V, in Natural Magick‎, The Third Book Of Natural Magick: […] , page 68:

     […] for hungry birds have devoured ſeeds, and having moiſtened and warmed them in their bellies, a little after have dunged in the forky twiſtes of Trees, and together with their dung excluded the ſeed whole which erſt they had ſwallowed: and ſometimes it brings forth there where they dung it, […]

5. (uncountable, collective) An amount of seeds that cannot be readily counted.

   The entire field was covered with geese eating the freshly sown seed.

6. (countable) A fragment of coral.
7. (uncountable) Semen.

   A man must use his seed to start and raise a family.

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Leviticus 15:16:

     And if any mans seede of copulation goe out from him, then hee shall wash all his flesh in water, and bee vncleane vntill the Euen.

8. (countable, figurative) A precursor.

   Synonym: germ

   the seed of an idea

   Which idea was the seed (idea)?

9. (countable) The initial state, condition or position of a changing, growing or developing process; the ultimate precursor in a defined chain of precursors.
   1. (sports) The initial position of a competitor or team in a tournament. (seed position)

      The team with the best regular season record receives the top seed in the conference tournament.

   2. The competitor or team occupying a given seed. (seed position)

      The rookie was a surprising top seed.

   4. (cryptography) The initialization state of a pseudorandom number generator or similar system. (seed number)

      If you use the same seed you will get exactly the same pattern of numbers.

      • 2009, Daniel J. Bernstein, Johannes Buchmann, Erik Dahmen, editors, Post-Quantum Cryptography, Springer, →ISBN, page 44:

        As suggested in [3], space can be saved by using a deterministic pseudo random number generator (PRNG) and storing only the seed of that PRNG.

      • 2015, Jesse Stay, Thomas Stay, Jacob Cordeiro, Minecraft For Dummies, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 242:

        Seeds are Minecraft's way of generating terrain. Each biome you spawn in is determined by the seed. With a custom seed, you can have a desert biome right next to a mesa biome.

   5. (Internet marketing) A commercial message in a creative format placed on relevant sites on the Internet. (seed idea or seed message)

      The latest seed has attracted a lot of users in our online community.

10. (now rare) Offspring, descendants, progeny.

    the seed of Abraham

    • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto X”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

      Next him king Leyr in happie peace long raind, / But had no issue male him to succeed, / But three faire daughters, which were well vptraind, / In all that seemed fit for kingly seed […]

11. Race; generation; birth.
    • a. 1687, Edmund Waller, To Zelinda:

      Of mortal seed they were not held.

12. (physics) A small particle, bubble, or imperfection that serves as a nucleation point for some process.
13. A small bubble formed in imperfectly fused glass.

Verb

seed (third-person singular simple present seeds, present participle seeding, simple past and past participle seeded)

1. (transitive) To plant or sow an area with seeds.

   I seeded my lawn with bluegrass.

2. (transitive) To cover thinly with something scattered; to ornament with seedlike decorations.
   • 1604 March 25 (first performance; Gregorian calendar; published 1604), Beniamin Ionson [i.e., Ben Jonson], “Part of the Kings Entertainment in Passing to His Coronation [The Coronation Triumph]”, in The Workes of Beniamin Ionson (First Folio), London: […] Will[iam] Stansby, published 1616, →OCLC, page 846:

     AGRYPNIA, or Vigilance, in yellow, a ſable mantle ſeeded with waking eyes, and ſiluer fringe: […]

3. (transitive) 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.

   The programmer seeded fresh, uncorrupted data into the database before running unit tests.

4. (sports, gaming) To allocate a seeding to a competitor.
   • 1979 July 2, “Reflection on the Seedings Fills Pause at Wimbledon”, in The New York Times‎:

     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.

5. (Internet, transitive) To leave (files) available for others to download through peer-to-peer file sharing protocols (e.g. BitTorrent).
6. (intransitive) To be qualified to compete, especially in a quarter-final, semi-final, or final.

   The tennis player seeded into the quarters.

7. (meteorology) 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.

8. (intransitive) To produce seed.
9. (intransitive) To grow to maturity.
10. (slang, vulgar) To ejaculate inside the penetratee during intercourse, especially in the rectum.

Verb

seed

1. (dialectal) simple past and past participle of see
   • 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter 3, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 15:

     Presently a rioting noise was heard without. Starting up, the landlord cried, "That's the Grampus's crew. I seed her reported in the offing this morning; a three years' voyage, and a full ship. Hurrah, boys; now we'll have the latest news from the Feegees."

Alternative forms

• ceed, ceede, sed, sede, sedde, seede, seide, seod, seth, seyd, seyde, side, syd, zed
• sad, sæd, sæt (Early Middle English)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /seːd/, /sɛːd/

Noun

seed (plural sedes)

1. seed (ovule or analogous structure):
   • c. 1395, John Wycliffe, John Purvey [et al.], transl., Bible (Wycliffite Bible (later version), MS Lich 10.)‎, published c. 1410, Matheu 13:31-32, page 6v, column 1; republished as Wycliffe's translation of the New Testament, Lichfield: Bill Endres, 2010:

     An oþer parable iheſus puttide foꝛþ to hem. / ⁊ ſeide / þe kyngdom of heuenes is lijk to a coꝛn of ſeneuey · which a man took ⁊ ſewe in his feeld · / which is þe leeſt of alle ſeedis / but whanne it haþ woxen .· it is the mooſt of alle woꝛtis · ⁊ is maad a tre / ſo þe bꝛiddis of þe eir comen ⁊ dwellen in þe bowis þerof.

     Jesus put another parable forwards to them, saying: "The Kingdom of Heaven is like a mustard seed that a person took and sowed in their field; / it is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown, it is the largest of all plants; it becomes a tree, so the birds of the air come and nest in its branches."

   1. A kind or variety of seed.
   2. (collectively) seed, grain
2. (figuratively) germ, origin
3. semen, sperm (or the supposed female equivalent)
4. offspring, progeny
5. descendants, lineage
6. (rare) bit, granule
7. (rare) seeding, sowing

Noun

seed

1. Alternative form of seden (“to seed”)