Etimology
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”).
noun
tree (plural trees or (obsolete) treen)
A perennial woody plant taller and larger than a bush with a wooden trunk and, at some distance from the ground, leaves and branches.
Any plant that is reminiscent of the above but not classified as a tree (in any botanical sense).
An object made from a tree trunk and having multiple hooks or storage platforms.
A device used to hold or stretch a shoe open.
The structural frame of a saddle.
(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.
(computing theory) A recursive data structure in which each node has zero or more nodes as children.
(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.
Any structure or construct having branches representing divergence or possible choices.
The structure or wooden frame used in the construction of a saddle used in horse riding.
(in the plural, slang) Marijuana.
(obsolete) A cross or gallows.
(chemistry) A mass of crystals, aggregated in arborescent forms, obtained by precipitation of a metal from solution.
(cartomancy) The fifth Lenormand card.
(uncountable, mathematics) Alternative letter-case form of TREE.
Examples
Hyperion is the tallest living tree in the world.
Birds have a nest in a tree in the garden.
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.
When we see a train trapped behind 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.
the banana tree
He had the choice of buying a scratching post or a cat tree.
He put a shoe tree in each of his shoes.
We’ll show it as a tree list.
family tree; skill tree
I like good pussy and I like good trees / Smoke so much weed you wouldn't believe
Everyday man's on the block / Smoke trees
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'?
Tyburn tree
[…] whom [i.e., Jesus] they ſlew and hanged on a tree,
Ste[phano]. Trinculo, keepe a good tongue in your head: If you proue a mutineere, the next Tree: […]
Was it for Crimes that I had done / He groan’d upon the Tree?
Related words
synonyms
sapling
seedling
hypernyms
plant
(in graph theory): graph
hyponyms
cabbage tree
chaste tree
cherry tree
Cherry Tree (places)
hip tree
Joshua tree
lipstick tree
pear tree, peartree
Pear Tree (place)
soap tree
meronyms
branch
knot
leaf
root
tree bark
tree ring
tree sap
tree trunk
verb
tree (third-person singular simple present trees, present participle treeing, simple past and past participle treed)
(transitive) To chase (an animal or person) up a tree.
(transitive) To place in a tree.
(transitive) To place upon a tree; to fit with a tree; to stretch upon a tree.
(intransitive) To take refuge in a tree.
Examples
The dog treed the cat.
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.
"And our dogs used to tree the cats on our property here, and we'd dispatch them."
Black bears can tree their cubs for protection, but grizzly bears cannot.
to tree a boot
Two suits and an overcoat hung in the closet over three pairs of carefully treed shoes.