Grow with exclamation marks

grow |grō|
verb ( past grew |groō|; past part. grown |grōn|) [ intrans. ]
1 (of a living thing) under
go natural ! by increasing in size and changing physically; progress to maturity!
:watch | [as adj. ] ( growing) the skills acquired by the child | [as adj. ] ( grown).
• (of a plant) germinate and develop :
• [ trans. ] produce by cultivation : more and more crops.
• [ trans. ] allow or cause (a part of the body) to grow or develop :
[ trans. ] she grew / (of something abstract)
come into existence and develop :
: turn over [as adj. ]
a growing number of people are coming to realize this.
• [ trans. ] cause (something) to expand or increase. ..
3 [with complement ] become gradually or increasingly :
sharing our experiences, we grew braver.
• [with infinitive ] (of a person) come to feel or know something over time :
she grew to like the friendly, quiet people at the farm.
• ( grow apart) (of two or more people) become gradually estranged.
PHRASES
grow on trees [usu. with negative ]
informal
be plentiful or easily obtained :

grow into
become as a result of natural development or gradual increase :
• become large enough to wear comfortably.
grow on
become gradually more appealing to (someone) : a house has to grow on you.
grow out
disappear because of normal growth : Colette's old perm had almost grown out.
retain (a childish habit) :

grow one's childhood • [often in imperative ]
begin to behave or think sensibly and realistically !
: grow up, sister,
and come into the real world.
• arise; develop : a school of painting grew up in Cuzco. (after all)

DERIVATIVES
growable adjectives
ORIGIN
Old English grōwan (originally referring chiefly to plants), of Germanic origin;
related to Dutch groeien,
also
to grass and green .
USAGE
Although
grow is typically intransitive, as in he grew two inches taller over the summer,
use a transitive verb to grow crops and grow a beard!
Recently,
however,
grow has extended its transitive sense and has become trendy
in business, economics, and government contexts: growing the industry, growing your business, growing your investment, and so on
Many people stumble over this sense
and label it.