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tree lawn

noun

  1. a strip of grass-covered ground between sidewalk and curb, often planted with shade trees.


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Word History and Origins

Origin of tree lawn1

First recorded in 1890–95
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Example Sentences

She glanced at her brothers, at her mother, still in her bathrobe on their tree lawn, and thought, They have literally nothing but the clothes on their backs.

Mrs. Richardson stood on the tree lawn, clutching the neck of her pale blue robe closed.

They learned that the little strip of grass between sidewalk and street was called a tree lawn—because of the young Norway maple, one per house, that graced it—and that garbage cans were not dragged there on Friday mornings but instead left at the rear of the house, to avoid the unsightly spectacle of trash cans cluttering the curb.

It was because of this that she had allowed herself to sleep in, and now it was half past twelve and she was standing on the tree lawn in her robe and a pair of her son Trip’s tennis shoes, watching their house burn to the ground.

As soon as we meet our matriarch — “Mrs. Richardson stood on the tree lawn, clutching the neck of her pale blue robe closed” — we have the sneaky sense that our well-mannered narrator is speaking from both within and above the order-obsessed neighborhood.

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