tree

[ tree ]
See synonyms for tree on Thesaurus.com
noun

  1. a plant having a permanently woody main stem or trunk, ordinarily growing to a considerable height, and usually developing branches at some distance from the ground.

  2. any of various shrubs, bushes, and plants, as the banana, resembling a tree in form and size.

  1. something resembling a tree in shape, as a clothes tree or a crosstree.

  2. Mathematics, Linguistics. tree diagram.

  3. family tree.

  4. a pole, post, beam, bar, handle, or the like, as one forming part of some structure.

  5. a shoetree or boot tree.

  6. a saddletree.

  7. a treelike group of crystals, as one forming in an electrolytic cell.

  8. a gallows or gibbet.

  9. the cross on which Christ was crucified.

  10. Computers. a data structure organized like a tree whose nodes store data elements and whose branches represent pointers to other nodes in the tree.

  11. Christmas tree.

verb (used with object),treed, tree·ing.

  1. to drive into or up a tree, as a pursued animal or person.

  2. Informal. to put into a difficult position.

  1. to stretch or shape on a tree, as a boot.

  2. to furnish (a structure) with a tree.

Idioms about tree

  1. up a tree, Informal. in a difficult or embarrassing situation; at a loss; stumped.

Origin of tree

1
before 900; Middle English; Old English trēo(w); cognate with Old Frisian, Old Norse trē,Old Saxon treo,Gothic triu; akin to Greek drŷs oak, Sanskrit, Avestan dru wood

Other words from tree

  • treelike, adjective

Words Nearby tree

Other definitions for Tree (2 of 2)

Tree
[ tree ]
noun

  1. Sir Herbert Beer·bohm [beer-bohm], /ˈbɪər boʊm/, Herbert Beerbohm, 1853–1917, English actor and theater manager; brother of Max Beerbohm.

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

How to use tree in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for tree (1 of 2)

tree

/ (triː) /

noun

  1. any large woody perennial plant with a distinct trunk giving rise to branches or leaves at some distance from the ground: Related adjective: arboreal

  2. any plant that resembles this but has a trunk not made of wood, such as a palm tree

  1. a wooden post, bar, etc

  2. See family tree, shoetree, saddletree

  3. chem a treelike crystal growth; dendrite

    • a branching diagrammatic representation of something, such as the grammatical structure of a sentence

    • (as modifier): a tree diagram

  5. an archaic word for gallows

  6. archaic the cross on which Christ was crucified

  7. at the top of the tree in the highest position of a profession, etc

  8. up a tree US and Canadian informal in a difficult situation; trapped or stumped

verbtrees, treeing or treed (tr)

  1. to drive or force up a tree

  2. to shape or stretch (a shoe) on a shoetree

Origin of tree

1
Old English trēo; related to Old Frisian, Old Norse trē, Old Saxon trio, Gothic triu, Greek doru wood, drus tree

Derived forms of tree

  • treeless, adjective
  • treelessness, noun
  • treelike, adjective

British Dictionary definitions for Tree (2 of 2)

Tree

/ (triː) /

noun

  1. Sir Herbert Beerbohm . 1853–1917, English actor and theatre manager; half-brother of Sir Max Beerbohm. He was noted for his lavish productions of Shakespeare

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 tree

tree

[ trē ]

  1. Any of a wide variety of perennial plants typically having a single woody stem, and usually branches and leaves. Many species of both gymnosperms (notably the conifers) and angiosperms grow in the form of trees. The ancient forests of the Devonian, Mississippian, and Pennsylvanian periods of the Paleozoic Era were dominated by trees belonging to groups of seedless plants such as the lycophytes. The strength and height of trees are made possible by the supportive conductive tissue known as vascular tissue.

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

Other Idioms and Phrases with tree

tree

see bark up the wrong tree; can't see the forest for the trees; talk someone's arm off (the bark off a tree); up a tree.

The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

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