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Wiktionary

tree

See also: tree-, Tree, TREE, and tréë

English

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A tree structure

Etymology

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    From Middle English tre, tree, treo, treou, trew, trow, from Old English trēo, trēow (“tree, wood, timber, beam, log, stake, stick, grove, cross, rood”), from Proto-West Germanic *treu, from Proto-Germanic *trewą (“tree, wood”), from pre-Germanic *dréwom, thematic e-grade derivative of Proto-Indo-European *dóru (“tree”).

    Cognates

    From the same Proto-Indo-European: Scots tree (“wood, rod, stick”), North Frisian tre, trä (“tree”), Middle Dutch tree > Dutch teer (“tree”), Danish træ (“tree”), Swedish trä (“wood”), träd (“tree”), Norwegian tre (“tree”), Icelandic tré (“tree”), Gothic 𐍄𐍂𐌹𐌿 (triu, “tree, wood, piece of wood”), Sanskrit दारु (dāru, “tree, wood”), Albanian dru (“tree, wood”), Welsh dâr (“oaks”), Ancient Greek δόρυ (dóru, “wood, spear”), Russian де́рево (dérevo) or дре́во (drévo), Tocharian A or. Related to tar, true.

    Pronunciation

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    Noun

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    tree (plural trees or (obsolete) treen)

    1. A perennial woody plant taller and larger than a shrub with a wooden trunk and, at some distance from the ground, leaves and branches.
      Hyperion is the tallest living tree in the world.
      Birds have a nest in a tree in the garden.
      • 1992 April 5, “The Full House”, in Jeeves and Wooster, Series 3, Episode 2:
        B. Wooster: Of all the places on this great planet of ours, West Neck, Long Island, has chosen to be the most unexciting. The last time anything remotely interesting happened here was in 1842, when a tree fell over. They still talk about it in the village.
      • 2019 October, Ian Walmsley, “Cleaning up”, in Modern Railways, page 42:
        When we see a train trapped behind (or embedded in) a fallen tree our first thought should be 'what was it doing there anyway?' […] Trees are also responsible for numerous minor delays in autumn [due to leaves falling on the track], which rolling stock engineers are supposed to cope with as usual.
    2. Any other plant (such as a large shrub or herb) that is reminiscent of the above in form and size.
      The banana tree is a tall perennial herb: its trunk is not woody.
    3. An object made from a tree trunk and having multiple hooks or storage platforms.
      He had the choice of buying a scratching post or a cat tree.
    4. A device used to hold or stretch a shoe open.
      He put a shoe tree in each of his shoes.
    5. The structural frame of a saddle.
    6. (graph theory) A connected graph with no cycles or, if the graph is finite, equivalently a connected graph with n vertices and n−1 edges.
    7. (computing theory) A recursive data structure in which each node has zero or more nodes as children.
    8. (graphical user interface) A display or listing of entries or elements such that there are primary and secondary entries shown, usually linked by drawn lines or by indenting to the right.
      We’ll show it as a tree list.
    9. Any structure or construct having branches representing divergence or possible choices.
      family tree; skill tree
    11. The structure or wooden frame used in the construction of a saddle used in horse riding.
    12. (often in the plural, slang) Marijuana.
      • 2005, “Shake That”, in Eminem, Nate Dogg (lyrics), Curtain Call: The Hits:
        I like good pussy and I like good trees / Smoke so much weed you wouldn't believe
      • 2017 September 22, “Man's Not Hot”‎[1]performed by Big Shaq [Michael Dapaah]:
        Everyday man's on the block / Smoke trees (ah)
      • 2018, “Ace”, in Room 25‎[2], performed by Noname ft. Smino & Saba:
        Whiskey with the team, got it bubblin' / I got trees in my luggage, I got tings out in London / Hope UK, what you say? Fuck is you sayin'?
    13. (archaic outside Christianity) A cross or gallows.
      Tyburn tree
      • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Acts 5:30:
        The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged on a tree.
      • 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii], page 12:
        Ste[phano]. Trinculo, keepe a good tongue in your head: If you proue a mutineere, the next Tree: […]
      • 1707, Isaac Watts, “Godly Sorrow ariſing from the Sufferings of Chriſt”, in Hymns and Spiritual Songs, London: J. Humfreys, page 86:
        Was it for Crimes that I had done / He groan’d upon the Tree?
      • 1997, Warren W. Wiersbe, The Names of Jesus:
        When Jesus died on that tree, he bore the awful curse of the law for us so that we might be saved.
      • 2004, Jon Courson, Jon Courson's Application Commentary, page 1130:
        Oh, that's not to say Peter's life was easy. In fact, he, too, ended up on a tree—not hung up by guilt, but crucified upside down on a cross for the sake of the One who not only hung on a tree for him, but rose and lived within him, empowering him to live a life of incredible impact and ministry.
      • 2015, Bruce Thomas, God's Purpose for His Creation:
        Jesus was crucified on a tree to give us life.
      • 2022, Sharmila Panirselvam, Life in the Hands of Jesus:
        Outside of Jerusalem, at Golgotha, Jesus was crucified on a tree with two other thieves because He claimed to be the king of the Jews.
    14. (chemistry) A mass of crystals, aggregated in arborescent forms, obtained by precipitation of a metal from solution.
    15. (cartomancy) The fifth Lenormand card.
    16. (uncountable, mathematics) Alternative letter-case form of TREE.

    Synonyms

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    The terms below need to be checked and allocated to the definitions (senses) of the headword above. Each term should appear in the sense for which it is appropriate. For synonyms and antonyms you may use the templates {{syn|en|...}} or {{ant|en|...}}.

    Hypernyms

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    Hyponyms

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    Of the sense “a perennial plant”
    Computing, graph theory, mathematics
    Other hyponyms of tree

    Meronyms

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    Of the sense “a perennial plant”

    Derived terms

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    Terms derived from “tree”
    Attributive uses of the noun “tree”
    Idioms with the word “tree”
    proverbs
    miscellaneous collection of multiterm words containing the word "tree"

    Descendants

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    • Jamaican Creole: chrii

    Translations

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    See also

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    Verb

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    tree (third-person singular simple present trees, present participle treeing, simple past and past participle treed)

    1. (transitive) To chase (an animal or person) up a tree.
      The dog treed the cat.
      • 1897, Henry Howard et al., editors, Encyclopaedia of Sport‎[3], volume I, London: Lawrence & Bullen, page 599:
        When hunted it [the jaguar] takes refuge in trees, and this habit is well known to hunters, who pursue it with dogs and pot it when treed.
      • 2008, Monte Dwyer, Red In The Centre: The Australian Bush Through Urban Eyes, Monyer Pty Ltd, page 146:
        "And our dogs used to tree the cats on our property here, and we'd dispatch them."
    2. (transitive) To place in a tree.
      Black bears can tree their cubs for protection, but grizzly bears cannot.
    3. (transitive) To place upon a shoe tree; to fit with a shoe tree; to stretch upon a shoe tree.
      to tree a boot
      • 1930, Dashiell Hammett, chapter 14, in The Maltese Falcon‎[4], New York: Alfred A. Knopf, page 165:
        Two suits and an overcoat hung in the closet over three pairs of carefully treed shoes.
    4. (intransitive) To take refuge in a tree.

    Translations

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    References

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    Anagrams

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    Afrikaans

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    Etymology

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    From Dutch tree, syncopic form of trede, from Middle Dutch trede. Equivalent to a deverbal from treden.

    Pronunciation

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    Noun

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    tree (plural treë)

    1. step (single act of placing the foot when walking)
    2. yard (unit of length)

    Dutch

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    Alternative forms

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    Etymology

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    From syncope of trede, from Middle Dutch trede. Equivalent to a deverbal from treden.

    Pronunciation

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    • IPA(key): /treː/, [treː], [treɪ̯]
    • Audio:(file)
    • Hyphenation: tree
    • Rhymes: -eː

    Noun

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    tree m (plural treden or treeën or trees, diminutive treetje n)

    1. step (of a staircase), stair
    2. (archaic) step (distance of one step when walking)
    3. (archaic, also tred) a unit of length of about 2 to 3 feet, roughly equivalent to a yard

    Derived terms

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    Descendants

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    Anagrams

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    Manx

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    Alternative forms

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    Etymology

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    From Old Irish trí, from Proto-Celtic *trīs, from Proto-Indo-European *tréyes.

    Pronunciation

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    Numeral

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    tree

    1. three

    References

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    Middle English

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    Noun

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    tree

    1. Alternative form of tre

    North Frisian

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    Etymology

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    From Old Frisian thrē.

    Numeral

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    tree

    1. (Heligoland) three

    Old Irish

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    Pronunciation

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    Pronoun

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    tree

    1. third-person singular feminine accusative of tri: through her/it sg
      • c. 800, Würzburg Glosses on the Pauline Epistles, published in Thesaurus Palaeohibernicus (reprinted 1987, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies), edited and with translations by Whitley Stokes and John Strachan, vol. I, pp. 499–712, Wb. 2c4
        Cain ro·noíbad Abracham tri hiris? In tree ǽm didiu fa nacc?
        Hasn’t Abraham been sanctified through faith? Through it then indeed or not?
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