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birch Definition

birch (bʉrc̸h)

noun

  1. any of a genus (Betula) of trees and shrubs of the birch family, having smooth bark easily peeled off in thin sheets, and hard, closegrained wood: found in northern climates
  2. the wood of any of these trees
  3. a birch rod or bunch of twigs used for whipping

Etymology: ME birche < OE beorc < IE base *bhereĝ-, to gleam, white > bright

transitive verb

to beat with a birch

adjective

  1. designating a family (Betulaceae, order Fagales) of dicotyledonous shrubs and trees, including the hazels, alders, and hornbeams
  2. of birch

birch Synonyms

birch

n.

Popular classifications of birch include: paper, white, aspen-leaved, yellow, black, weeping;

birch Usage Examples

Converse of object

  • bring: I don't want to bring back the birch, the stocks or transportation.
  • include: Much of the wych elm has been affected by Dutch Elm Disease and other trees include birch, sycamore and oak.

Converse of subject

  • dominate: Moor Piece This block of semi-natural woodland is dominated by birch, with a fringe of conifers along the northwestern boundary.

Adjective modifier

  • downy: Facts Like silver birch, downy birch is a source of food for over 200 species of wildlife including several kinds of moth.
  • silver: The main food plant of the hazel leaf beetle is the silver birch.
  • native: Our own native birches such as B. pendula and B. pubescens provide an excellent spring flush of foliage and wonderful autumn color.
  • solid: Highgate Birch The contemporary styling, with smoothly curved corners, works beautifully with the solid birch framed door design.
  • white: European white birch shows a good yellow autumn color.
  • young: The larva can be found on young birch in July.

Modifies a noun

  • sapling: Oak and birch saplings are cleared to prevent the heath turning into woodland.
  • plywood: Norm builds one out of poplar and birch plywood for a painted finish.
  • twig: Many hundreds of years ago, she would have flogged herself with birch twigs.
  • ply: The CNC parts are in the harder birch ply for parts in more highly stressed areas.
  • bark: She is the light of birch bark, carved to sail on her soothing rivers.
  • scrub: In 1992 BTCV cleared most of the birch scrub to address the problem.

Modifying Another Word

  • mainly: Woodland is mainly birch although in sheltered places there is some mixed oak and elm.

Noun used with modifier

  • dwarf: The landscape here is typical habitat for dwarf birch.
  • silver: A silver birch, burnt then chopped at with an ax, still looking a bit like a silver birch.
  • quality: The Sid Cooke Premier range is made to 1/12th scale and constructed from top quality birch plywood, MDF and hardwoods.
  • paper: The bark of European white birch is beautiful and white, but does not peel in large plates as does the Northern paper birch.
birch Quotes

The sailing pine, the cedar proud and tall, The vine-prop elm, the poplar never dry, The builder oak, sole king of forests all, The aspen good for staves, the cypress funeral. The laurel, meed of mighty conquerors And poets sage, the fir that weepeth still, The willow worn of forlorn paramours, The ewe obedient to the benders will, The birch for shafts, the sallow for the mill, The myrrh sweet bleeding in the bitter wound, The warlike beech, the ash for nothing ill, The fruitful olive, and the platan round, The carver holme, the maple seldom inward sound.

—Spenser, Edmund

I'm all for bringing back the birch. But only between consenting adults.

—Vidal, Gore originally Eugene Luther Vidal,Jr

I'd like to go by climbing a birch tree And climb black branches up a snow-white trunk Toward heaven, till the tree could bear no more, But dipped its top and set me down again. That would be good both going and coming back. One could do worse than be a swinger of birches.

—Frost, Robert Lee