[f. SPROUT v.1] That sprouts, in senses of the verb.
1. Of buds, plants, etc.
1590. Greene, Never too late (1600), 20. His graue wisdom exceedes thy greene wit, and his ripened fruits thy sprouting blossomes.
1633. P. Fletcher, Poet. Misc., To Master W. C. Here thou and I, under the sprouting vine,… Will sit.
1641. G. Sandys, Paraphr. Song Solom., II. iv. Green Figs on sprouting trees appear.
1721. Ramsay, Content, 2. When genial beams … from the clod invite the sprouting corn.
1870. Bryant, Iliad, VI. I. 189. The sprouting wood Puts forth another brood.
b. Sprouting broccoli, a kind of broccoli producing sprouts.
1852. G. W. Johnson, Cottage Gard. Dict., 149. Purple or Green Brocoli:… 4 Sprouting. Syn., Italian Sprouting, Grange’s Early Purple Sprouting [etc.].
1895. Daily News, 20 April 5/4. Sprouting broccoli and turnip tops are the cheapest green vegetables.
2. Of outgrowths from animal bodies.
1681. Dryden, Abs. & Achit., 542. But a whole Hydra more Remains of sprouting heads too long to score.
1739. S. Sharp, Surg., p. xix. Since Sloughs are flung off by the sprouting new Flesh underneath.
1771. Encycl. Brit., III. 644. Dry lint … at the same time is an easy compress upon the sprouting fungus.
1822–7. Good, Study Med. (1829), I. 394. The hemorrhoidal vessels … that form or supply the sprouting tumours.
1888. E[mily] Gerard, Land beyond Forest, II. xlv. 236. He appeared to be little over twenty years of age, had a small sallow face, a sprouting moustache, and dark eyes set rather near together.
