tree

Etymology

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-Germanic *trewą (“tree, wood”), from pre-Germanic *dréwom, thematic e-grade derivative of Proto-Indo-European *dóru (“tree”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /tɹiː/, [tɹiː], [t͡ʃɹiː]
• (US) IPA^(key): /tɹi/, [tɹi], [t͡ʃɹi]

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iː

Noun

tree (plural trees or (obsolete) treen)

1. (botany) A large plant, not exactly defined, but typically over four meters in height, with a single trunk that grows in girth with age and branches (that also grow in circumference with age).
   • 1992 April 5, "The Full House", 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.

   Hyperion is the tallest living tree in the world.

   Birds have a nest in a tree in the garden.

2. (botany) Any plant that is reminiscent of the above but not classified as a tree in the strict botanical sense.

   the banana tree

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, 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 akin to (1).
10. The structure or wooden frame used in the construction of a saddle used in horse riding.
11. (informal) Marijuana.
    • 2005, Eminem and Nate Dogg (lyrics), “Shake That”, in Curtain Call: The Hits:

      I like good pussy and I like good trees / Smoke so much weed you wouldn't believe

12. (obsolete) A cross or gallows.

    Tyburn tree

    • Bible, Acts x. 39

      [Jesus] whom they slew and hanged on a tree.

13. (obsolete) wood; timber
    • Wyclif Bible (2 Tim. ii. 20)

      In a great house ben not only vessels of gold and of silver but also of tree and of earth.

14. (chemistry) A mass of crystals, aggregated in arborescent forms, obtained by precipitation of a metal from solution.
15. (cartomancy) The fifth Lenormand card.

Verb

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. (eds.), Encyclopaedia of Sport, London: Lawrence & Bullen, Volume I, p. 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.

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 tree; to fit with a tree; to stretch upon a tree.

   to tree a boot

   • 1930, Dashiell Hammett, The Maltese Falcon, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Chapter 14, p. 165,

     Two suits and an overcoat hung in the closet over three pairs of carefully treed shoes.

Anagrams

• reet, rete

Alternative forms

• trede

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [treː]

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

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

1. step (of a staircase), stair

Anagrams

• eert, eter, reet, teer, tere

Etymology

From Old Frisian thrē.

Numeral

tree

1. (Heligoland) three