shrub

1
[ shruhb ]
See synonyms for: shrubshrubs on Thesaurus.com

noun
  1. a woody plant smaller than a tree, usually having multiple permanent stems branching from or near the ground.

Origin of shrub

1
before 1000; Middle English shrubbe,Old English scrybb brushwood; cognate with dialectal Danish skrub

Other words from shrub

  • shrubless, adjective
  • shrublike, adjective

Words Nearby shrub

Other definitions for shrub (2 of 2)

shrub2
[ shruhb ]

noun
  1. any of various acidulated beverages made from the juice of fruit, sugar, and other ingredients, often including alcohol.

Origin of shrub

2
1740–50; <Arabic, metathetic variant of shurb drink; see sherbet

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

How to use shrub in a sentence

  • Luis, whose heart was severed by the blade, had collapsed under a large shrub.

  • It was supposed by many on its discovery to grow like the engraving given—in form resembling a tree or shrub rather than an herb.

  • Almost any other kind of shrub'd have died long ago, neglected as things have been, but you can't kill a currant bush.

    Dorothy at Skyrie | Evelyn Raymond
  • Brutus was getting well, but there would always be a scar on his shoulder, where the sharp-pointed shrub had entered the flesh.

    The Cromptons | Mary J. Holmes
  • He shook his cramped limbs with as little ceremony as if Kano were a shrub, and then turned, with the evident intention of flight.

    The Dragon Painter | Mary McNeil Fenollosa
  • “Guayule” is a resinous rubber secured from a two-foot shrub that grows on the arid plains of Texas and Northern Mexico.

British Dictionary definitions for shrub (1 of 2)

shrub1

/ (ʃrʌb) /


noun
  1. a woody perennial plant, smaller than a tree, with several major branches arising from near the base of the main stem

Origin of shrub

1
Old English scrybb; related to Middle Low German schrubben coarse, uneven, Old Swedish skrubba to scrub 1

Derived forms of shrub

  • shrublike, adjective

British Dictionary definitions for shrub (2 of 2)

shrub2

/ (ʃrʌb) /


noun
  1. a mixed drink of rum, fruit juice, sugar, and spice

  2. mixed fruit juice, sugar, and spice made commercially to be mixed with rum or other spirits

Origin of shrub

2
C18: from Arabic sharāb, variant of shurb drink; see sherbet

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

Scientific definitions for shrub

shrub

[ shrŭb ]


  1. A woody plant that is smaller than a tree, usually having several stems rather than a single trunk; a bush.

The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.