0 grain, especially corn, that is kept for planting to produce new plants
1 something or someone that is important as the starting point for future development:
seed corn for/of sth These small operations are the seed corn of what STP hopes will become large enterprises.
2 → seed noun
Farmers were forcibly deprived not only of seed corn, but of food.
For example, a farmer may decide after an experimental trial of hybrid corn that he prefers to return to his previous seed corn.
This is intended to lead to the production of a multitude of short compositional 'sketches' providing seed corn for future composing work.
We must remember that the industry is the seed corn of any manufacturing base.
This country cannot continue to eat its seed corn and survive.
It is never a good thing to eat the seed corn, and that is what we will do if we start spending capital as income.
One either eats the seed corn or plants it.
These grants, it will be realized, were only in the nature of seed corn.
