oak fern


noun
  1. a small woodland fern, Gymnocarpium dryopteris, of northern regions, having triangular, pinnate fronds that slant horizontally.

Origin of oak fern

1
1540–50; translation of Latin dryopteris<Greek dryopterís, equivalent to dryo- (combining form of drŷs oak) + ptéris fern

Words Nearby oak fern

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use oak fern in a sentence

  • So far as I remember, my first encounter with the oak fern was in a cedar swamp, famous for its growth of showy lady's-slippers.

    How to Know the Ferns | Frances Theodora Parsons
  • As is often the case, having once discovered the haunt of the oak fern, it ceased to be a rarity.

    How to Know the Ferns | Frances Theodora Parsons
  • Also the pinnæ are not arranged so definitely in the form of three branches, as is to be observed in the case of the oak fern.

    How to Know the Ferns | S. Leonard Bastin
  • The oak fern grows in a damp and shady spot in the garden, though it is often more happy in a pot.

    How to Know the Ferns | S. Leonard Bastin
  • The oak fern is common in many parts of Scotland, and is to be seen carpeting the ground of many a moist wood.

    How to Know the Ferns | S. Leonard Bastin

British Dictionary definitions for oak fern

oak fern

noun
  1. a graceful light green polypody fern, Thelypteris dryopteris, having a creeping rhizome, found in acid woodlands and on rocks in the northern hemisphere

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012