bur oak

American  

noun

1. an oak tree, Quercus macrocarpa, of eastern North America, having shiny, dark-green leaves, light-gray deeply ridged bark, and very large acorns with a fringed cup, yielding a hard, durable wood: the state tree of Illinois.

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bur oak British  

noun

1. an E North American oak, Quercus macrocarpa , having fringed acorn cups and durable timber

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Etymology

Origin of bur oak

An Americanism dating back to 1805–15

Example Sentences

Van Pelt repeated the method on 11 more trees, including bur oak, scarlet oak and the pecan.

From Seattle Times • Sep. 1, 2023

After spending time in the nature conservancy’s bur oak savanna near Lake Edith, Allmann wrote a poem titled “Open Grown.”

From Washington Times • Jun. 26, 2016

For my money, I’ll take the bur oak, the slowest-growing but the strongest of all; even its acorns are heavily armored, ready to do battle with the uninviting soil.

From Slate • Apr. 22, 2016

Common trees would have been American elm, shellbark hickory, bur oak, swamp white oak, tupelo and black willow.

From New York Times • Aug. 3, 2011

Uttering a couple of those deep grunts, he just seemed to rise up in the air like fog off the river and disappeared in the branches of the bur oak tree.

From "Summer of the Monkeys" by Wilson Rawls