tree Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun a tall perennial woody plant having a main trunk and branches forming a distinct elevated crown; includes both gymnosperms and angiosperms
  2. noun a figure that branches from a single root
    tree diagram.
    • genealogical tree
  3. noun English actor and theatrical producer noted for his lavish productions of Shakespeare (1853-1917)
    Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree.
  4. verb force a person or an animal into a position from which he cannot escape
    corner.
  5. verb plant with trees
    • this lot should be treed so that the house will be shaded in summer
  6. verb chase an animal up a tree
    • the hunters treed the bear with dogs and killed it
    • her dog likes to tree squirrels
  7. verb stretch (a shoe) on a shoetree
    shoetree.

WordNet

Tree noun
Etymology
OE. tree, tre, treo, AS. treó, treów, tree, wood; akin to OFries. tr, OS. treo, trio, Icel. tr, Dan. træ, Sw. trä, träd, Goth. triu, Russ. drevo, W. derw an oak, Ir. darag, darog, Gr. a tree, oak, a beam, spear shaft, spear, Skr. dru tree, wood, daru wood. , . Cf. Dryad, Germander, Tar, n., Trough.
Definitions
  1. (Bot.) Any perennial woody plant of considerable size (usually over twenty feet high) and growing with a single trunk. ✍ The kind of tree referred to, in any particular case, is often indicated by a modifying word; as forest tree, fruit tree, palm tree, apple tree, pear tree, etc.
  2. Something constructed in the form of, or considered as resembling, a tree, consisting of a stem, or stock, and branches; as, a genealogical tree.
  3. A piece of timber, or something commonly made of timber; -- used in composition, as in axletree, boottree, chesstree, crosstree, whiffletree, and the like.
  4. A cross or gallows; as Tyburn tree.
    [Jesus] whom they slew and hanged on a tree. Acts x. 39.
  5. Wood; timber. Obs. Chaucer.
    In a great house ben not only vessels of gold and of silver but also of tree and of earth. Wyclif (2 Tim. ii. 20).
  6. (Chem.) A mass of crystals, aggregated in arborescent forms, obtained by precipitation of a metal from solution. See Lead tree, under Lead.
Tree transitive verb
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Treed ; present participle & verbal noun Treeing
Definitions
  1. To drive to a tree; to cause to ascend a tree; as, a dog trees a squirrel. J. Burroughs.
  2. To place upon a tree; to fit with a tree; to stretch upon a tree; as, to tree a boot. See Tree, n., 3.

Webster 1913