noun

• (figuratively) Something that has begun to develop.
  "breast buds"
• (usually uncountable, slang) Potent cannabis taken from the flowering part of the plant (the "bud"), or marijuana generally.
  "You got any buds?"
• (usually uncountable, slang) Potent cannabis taken from the flowering part of the plant (the "bud"), or marijuana generally.
  "Hey bro, want to smoke some bud?"
• (dated, term of endearment) A pretty young girl.
  "My pretty bud was unfolding and I was not there to see it. She was developing so rapidly, I felt I could not be from her a day without missing some sweetness that could never come again."

verb

• (intransitive) To form buds.
  "The trees are finally starting to bud."
• (intransitive) To reproduce by splitting off buds.
  "Yeast reproduces by budding."
• (intransitive) To begin to grow, or to issue from a stock in the manner of a bud, as a horn.
• (intransitive) To be like a bud in respect to youth and freshness, or growth and promise.
  "Young budding virgin, fair and fresh and sweet, / Whither away, or where is thy abode?"

noun

• (informal, Canada, US) Buddy, friend.
  "I like to hang out with my buds on Saturday night."
• (informal, chiefly Canada) Synonym of guy, term of address for a man or person.
  "[T]hen he shrugged his shoulders and said, with admirable philosophy: "Well, that's life, ain't it, bud?""

name

• (rare, chiefly Southern US) A male given name from English.