puffball
- noun
- /ˈpʌfˌbɔl/
- On my hike, I discovered a large puffball that released a cloud of spores when I touched it.
- a giant puffball
- puffball mushrooms
- a white puffball
Examples
-
I am in the woods for days on end; in the evenings, I marinate or fry parasol mushroom cutlets or puffball roasts.
Fiction book (1996) -
Parasol mushrooms and puffballs were mentioned earlier.
Fiction book (1996) -
In the next section, they read about the puffball which lives in the dark.
Academic text (1993) -
She gave them all she had in the house, four dollars, which bought her a special deluxe assortment of sixteen of their largest, finest fungi, including their only puffball.
Fiction book (2002) -
When I next glanced down, I saw white puffballs hanging motionless over factory smokestacks, oil tanks like white coins by a glittering brown river.
Fiction book (1997) -
The chef used a freshly harvested puffball to add flavor to his signature dish.
-
After a rain, the forest floor was dotted with puffballs ready to release their spores.
Synonyms
A round wild mushroom that releases a cloud of tiny spores when touched
A round mushroom that releases a cloud of spores when you touch it
Compounds
- Specialized
A small mushroom with a hard outer skin that grows underground like a truffle
Surface Forms
Morphology
Etymology
The word puffball comes from the simple parts puff ('a short breath or small cloud') and ball ('a round thing'). These fungi are round and give a little 'puff' of spores when you touch or step on them, which is why we call them puffballs.