seed

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
seed/siːd/

▶noun

• 1 a flowering plant's unit of reproduction, capable of developing into another such plant.

  ■ a quantity of these.

• 2 the beginning of a feeling, process, or condition.

• 3 any of a number of stronger competitors in a sports tournament who have been assigned a position in an ordered list to ensure they do not play each other in the early rounds.

• 4 archaic a man's semen.

  ■ (chiefly in biblical use) offspring or descendants.

• 5 a small crystal introduced into a liquid to act as a nucleus for crystallization.

• 6 a small container of radioactive material placed in body tissue during radiotherapy.

▶verb

• 1 sow (land) with seeds.

  ■ sow (seed).

• 2 produce or drop seeds.

• 3 remove the seeds from.

• 4 initiate the development or growth of.

  ■ place a crystalline substance in (a cloud or solution) in order to cause condensation or crystallization.

• 5 give (a competitor) the status of seed in a tournament.

– phrases
go (or run) to seed

• 1 cease flowering as the seeds develop.

• 2 deteriorate in condition or strength.

– derivatives
seeded adjective,
seedless adjective.

– origin OE sǣd, of Gmc origin; rel. to sow1.