1. Fleshy body of any of numerous edible fungi
   "She sautéed a variety of mushrooms for the risotto"; "The chef prepared a creamy wild mushroom soup"
    
2. Common name for an edible agaric (contrasting with the inedible toadstool)
   "She sautéed button mushrooms to top the steak"
    
3. Mushrooms and related fleshy fungi (including toadstools, puffballs, morels, coral fungi, etc.)
   "The mycologist studied various types of mushrooms in the old-growth forest"
    
4. Any of various fleshy fungi of the subdivision Basidiomycota consisting of a cap at the end of a stem arising from an underground mycelium
   "The forager carefully identified edible mushrooms in the forest"
    
5. A large cloud of rubble and dust shaped like a mushroom and rising into the sky after an explosion (especially of a nuclear bomb)
   "The nuclear test produced a massive mushroom cloud visible for miles";
   - mushroom cloud, mushroom-shaped cloud

1. Grow and spread fast
   "The problem mushroomed"
    
2. Pick or gather mushrooms
   "We went mushrooming in the Fall"

Derived forms: mushrooms, mushrooming, mushroomed

Type of: agaric, basidiomycete, basidiomycetous fungi, cloud, cull, grow, pick, pluck, veg [Brit, informal], vegetable, veggie [informal]

Antonym: toadstool

Part of: stuffed mushroom

Encyclopedia: Mushroom