birch
Americannoun
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birches
plural
-
any tree or shrub of the genus Betula, comprising species with a smooth, laminated outer bark and close-grained wood.
-
the wood itself.
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a birch rod, or a bundle of birch twigs, used especially for whipping.
adjective
verb (used with object)
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birches,
present (3rd person singular)
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birched,
past participle, past
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birching
present participle
noun
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any betulaceous tree or shrub of the genus Betula, having thin peeling bark See also silver birch
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the hard close-grained wood of any of these trees
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a bundle of birch twigs or a birch rod used, esp formerly, for flogging offenders
adjective
-
of, relating to, or belonging to the birch
-
consisting or made of birch
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
birchsimple
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birchessimple
-
have birchedperfect
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has birchedperfect
-
am birchingprogressive
-
are birchingprogressive
-
is birchingprogressive
-
have been birchingperfect progressive
-
has been birchingperfect progressive
Past
-
birchedsimple
-
had birchedperfect
-
was birchingprogressive
-
were birchingprogressive
-
had been birchingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of birch
before 900; Middle English birche, Old English birce; cognate with Old High German birka ( German Birke ); akin to Sanskrit bhūrja kind of birch
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The cars are connected to charging points by the garages for the flats, which are in traditional red buildings bordered by birch trees and a large golf course.
From Barron's ● Jun. 12, 2026
He said these forests were dominated by oak, hazel, elm, birch and pine but would have functioned as what we now recognise as a temperate rainforest in the wetter west.
From BBC ● May 25, 2026
Among the evidence they gathered were purchase orders for birch plywood emailed from Boise’s Pompano office, including some that arrived after investigators conducted their raid.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 28, 2026
Only raccoons are said to live in the Karlshorst buildings and birch saplings are sprouting out of a balcony.
From Barron's ● Feb. 8, 2026
It touches a birch tree, and the little curls of bark flare all the way up the trunk.
From "Wayward Creatures" by Dayna Lorentz
In my Connecticut backyard, I’ve been reclaiming the turf under my maples and birches by planting native ferns, geraniums and woodland asters.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 31, 2025
Around 700,000 years ago, dense forests of pines, birches, and chestnut relatives gave way to more open habitats with larger patches of grassland.
From National Geographic ● Jan. 10, 2024
On another visit to the North Cascades, I saw vine maples alternating with birches and alders in deep forest.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 18, 2022
“White birches were selected because the foliage is transparent,” Ruppert said.
From Washington Post ● Jul. 13, 2020
A sudden wind rustled through the birches; a gust of yellow leaves came storming down.
From "The Secret History" by Donna Tartt
Since Great-Grandfather birched Grandfather for sneaking into the hayloft with a yellow, blue and green wrapped copy of Deadwood Dick on Deck, worrywarts have viewed U.S. reading habits with alarm.
From Time Magazine Archive
If this be true, I feel sure that Mr. Urban's stars glistened on eucalyptical roses whilst potted canopied moonlit sprays birched on every garden of gauze.
From Time Magazine Archive
In Britain, by long tradition the novelist cuts his teeth on the old school in order to bite the hand that birched him, but the school novel is a comparative rarity in U.S. letters.
From Time Magazine Archive
They go on for ever, past all bearing; I must do something—stand on my head, pluck some one’s stool away, or tickle Robin with a straw, if I am birched the next moment.
From A Reputed Changeling Or Three Seventh Years Two Centuries Ago by Charlotte Mary Yonge
And your switch doubtless blooms as it did long ago; I have heard that recently you birched the Muscovites.
From Pan Tadeusz Or, the Last Foray in Lithuania; a Story of Life Among Polish Gentlefolk in the Years 1811 and 1812 by George Rapall Noyes
Although birching was finally banned in Britain in 1968, Man's 1,000-year-old parliament, the Tynwald, has long been allowed to make its own internal laws.
From Time Magazine Archive
The European Court is expected to condemn the practice this spring, forcing Britain to outlaw birching on the isle.
From Time Magazine Archive
I do believe that I am trembling like a refractory scholar with a prospective birching.
From Representative Plays by American Dramatists: 1856-1911: Love in '76 An Incident of the Revolution by Oliver Bell Bunce
He could, not endure another public expulsion, or even another birching; he could not endure the cold faces of even his best friends.
From Eric by F. W. (Frederic William) Farrar
If you'd worked harder at College and done me credit, you'd 'a' been a feller of your college, or a judge in an Indian court, by this time, instead of birching naughty little boys.'
From The Giant's Robe by F. Anstey
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
