birch
Americannoun
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birches
plural
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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
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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:
Suffering most are trees "we really associate with an English garden or an English landscape", she said: oaks, sycamores, birch, limes.
From Barron's ● Aug. 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
Red brick buildings stand alongside towering maple, oak, birch and sycamore trees.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 9, 2026
The DB5 Vantage in silver birch grey owned by Mr Williams is one of only 39 such models in the world.
From BBC ● Dec. 1, 2025
He started descending the birch, and in another moment he was grinning like an idiot.
From "Abel's Island" by William Steig
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
Hiking north, the trunks are almost as pale as birches, even though more texture is visible; in fact, they are members of the same family, Betulaceae.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 18, 2022
The forest grew thicker on both sides of the road — birches, chestnuts, clusters of pines.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 9, 2022
Presently we enter a dark woods of very old yellow birches and again lose Crystal.
From "On the Far Side of the Mountain" by Jean Craighead George
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
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
During this time two boys were birched by the queen's orders, and an officer was sent out to inquire why the watch he had given her did not go.
From The Discovery of the Source of the Nile by John Hanning Speke
It was but a year since the young Cornet, now so knowing a hand in Cribb's parlour, had a still lingering liking for toffy, and used to be birched at Eton.
From Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray
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
And all the birching in the world will not destroy a wish; the most it can do is to change its form.
From A Dominie in Doubt by Alexander Sutherland Neill
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, or Little by Little by F. W. (Frederic William) Farrar
The rooms were full of politicians and their wives, of members just arrived from the House, of Ministers smiling at each other with lifted eyebrows, like boys escaped from a birching.
From Sir George Tressady — Volume II by Mrs. Humphry Ward
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.
