tree

(trē)

a. A perennial woody plant having a main trunk and usually a distinct crown.

b. A plant or shrub resembling a tree in form or size.

a. Something that resembles a tree in form, especially a diagram or arrangement that has branches showing relationships of hierarchy or lineage.

b. Computers A structure for organizing or classifying data in which every item can be traced to a single origin through a unique path.

a. A wooden beam, post, stake, or bar used as part of a framework or structure.

b. A saddletree.

4. Archaic

a. A gallows.

b. The cross on which Jesus was crucified.

tr.v. treed, tree·ing, trees

1. To force up a tree: Dogs treed the raccoon.

2. Informal To force into a difficult position; corner: the reporters finally treed the mayor.

3. To supply or cover with trees: a hillside that is treed with oaks.

Idiom:

up a tree Informal

In a situation of great difficulty or perplexity; helpless.

[Middle English, from Old English trēow; see deru- in Indo-European roots.]

tree′less adj.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Trees

See Also: LEAVES, NATURE

Apple-trees on which the apples looked like great shining soap bubbles —Hans Christian Andersen
The bark hung in ribbons from the trunks like the flayed skins of living creatures —R. Wright Campbell
Beeches … their beautiful bare green trunks like limbs —Elizabeth Bowen
The big pine was like greenish bronze against the October sky —Ellen Glasgow
(In the moonlight) the big trees around us looked as bare as gallows —John Braine
The birches bend like women —Caroline Finkelstein
The birches stand out … like gay banners on white poles —Erich Maria Remarque
The birch trees wavered their stark shadows across it [snow] like supplicating arms —Leo Tolstoy
Boughs … as rough and hornily buckled as the hands of old farmers —Margaret Laurence
[Tree] branches … looked like the powerful contorted fingers of a gigantic hand —Sholem Asch
The branches [of a weeping willow] were thin, like the bleached bones of a skeleton —Daphne du Maurier
Cedars … black and pointed on the sky like a paper silhouette —William Faulkner
Chestnut trees … their clusters of white blossoms like candelabras —Dorothea Straus
Copses of hazel and alder stood like a low, petrified forest —H. E. Bates
Cypresses rose like cathedral spires —Jilly Cooper
Elms rich like cucumbers —Joyce Cary
Evergreens as big as tents —Julia O’Faolain
Evergreens … out of place [amid the other trees that change their foliage in Autumn] … like poor relations at a rich man’s feast —Jerome K. Jerome
Huge hardwood trees draped with clusters of Spanish moss guarded the house from the afternoon heat like overdressed sentinels —Paul Kuttner
Magnolia … its chalices of flowers like superb classical emblems —H. E. Bates
Maples, burning like bonfires, pure yellow and pure red —Pamela Hansford Johnson
My poplars are … like two old neighbors met to chat —Theodosia Garrison
The oaks stood silent and tired, like old, worn-out seekers after pleasure, unable to keep up in this grimy, mechanized world of ours —Anthony Powell
Palms … like Spanish exclamation points —Sue Grafton
A pear tree glistened in bloom like a graceful drift of snow —George Garrett
The pear tree lets its petals drop like dandruff on a tabletop —W. D. Snodgrass
Pines … moaning like the sea —John Greenleaf Whittier
Pines tossing their green manes like frightened horses —George Garrett
The pines were packed like a quiver of arrows —John Farris
The pine-trees roared like waves in their topmost branches, their stems creaked like the timber of ships —Katherine Mansfield
A poplar covered with snow looked, in the bluish mist, like a giant in a winding sheet —Anton Chekhov
Poplars like dark feathers against the green and gold sunset —Sharon Sheehe Stark
The poplars stood like tall guards, attentive, at attention —Delmore Schwartz
A week after the poet entered this in his diary as a fragment he incorporated it into a poem as follows: “The poplar stood like a rifle.”
Poplars that rose above the mist were like a beach stirred by the wind —Gustave Flaubert
Red maples and orange oaks, shaped like hands —Jonathan Valin
The redwoods let sink their branches like arms that try to hold buckets filling slowly with diamonds —James Dickey
Rows of bay trees like children’s green lollipops —Graham Masterton
Saw the bare branches of a tree, like fine lace, against the blackness [of garden] —Jean Rhys
The scarlet of the maples can shake me like a cry —Bliss Carman
The shadows hung from the oak trees to the road like curtains —Eudora Welty
Tall trees like towers —Carlos Baker
A thick low-hanging branch sags like a wounded arm —John Rechy
The tops of pines moonlit, like floating Christmas trees —Frank Conroy
The tree, in full bloom, was like a huge mountain lit with candles —Alice Walker
Trees against walls, flattened like spies in old movies —Lisa Ress
The trees and the shrubbery seemed well-groomed and sociable, like pleasant people —Willa Cather
The tree sat like a party umbrella (trunk sturdy, branches gently arching) —W. P. Kinsella
Trees bent like arches —Graham Swift
The trees cast still shadows like intricate black laces —H. G. Wells
Trees darkening like clusters of frightened wrens —Philip Levine
The trees dimmed the whiteness [of snow] like a sparse coat of hair —John Cheever
The trees drooped like old men with back problems —T. Coraghessan Boyle
Trees grew close and spread out like bouquets —Stephen Crane
The trees have a look as if they bore sad names —Wallace Stevens
Trees … hunched against the dawn sky like shaggy dark animals, like buffalo —Alice Munro
A tree slender as life, and as tall —Kenneth Patchen
Trees … like burnt-out torches —Oscar Wilde
Trees … like fresh-painted green —Danny Santiago
Trees … like prophet’s fingers —Dylan Thomas
Trees like tall ships —Sharon Sheehe Stark
Trees [planted 40 years ago] … now stately, like patriarchs whose wisdom lives in their mere physical presence, after all sight and mind have been feebled —Paul Horgan
Trees spaced out in ordered formality … like a ballet of spinsters —W. Somerset Maugham
Trees spread like green lather —F. Scott Fitzgerald
Trees … spread their scant shade upon the ground like fine strands of hair —Yitzhak Shenhar
The trees stood motionless and white like figures in a marble frieze —Helen Keller
(In the park) the trees stood reticent as old men —Helen Hudson
Trees … tall and straight as the masts of ships —Donald Hall
Trees tall as mythical giants —David Ignatow
Trees … vibrating headily like coins shaken in a dark money-box —Robert Culff
See Also: VIBRATIONS
The trees were beginning to put out buds like tiny wings —Helen Hudson
The trees were plucked like iron bars —Wallace Stevens
Trees whose branches spread like hugging, possessive arms —John Rechy
Trees with branches like the groping fingers of men long dead —Loren D. Estleman
Trunks like thick skirts hanging in folds —Paul Theroux
Twigs grasped for the sky like frayed electrical wires —Z. Vance Wilson
Willow trees … their trailing leaves hung like waterfalls in the morning air —Eudora Welty

Translations

We'd like to see local plants and trees → Vi vil gjerne se lokalt planteliv