BIRCH

Pronunciation (US):

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does birch mean? 

• BIRCH (noun)
  The noun BIRCH has 3 senses:

1. hard close-grained wood of any of various birch trees; used especially in furniture and interior finishes and plywood

2. any betulaceous tree or shrub of the genus Betula having a thin peeling bark

3. a switch consisting of a twig or a bundle of twigs from a birch tree; used to hit people as punishment

  Familiarity information: BIRCH used as a noun is uncommon.

• BIRCH (adjective)
  The adjective BIRCH has 1 sense:

1. consisting of or made of wood of the birch tree

  Familiarity information: BIRCH used as an adjective is very rare.

• BIRCH (verb)
  The verb BIRCH has 1 sense:

1. whip with a birch twig

  Familiarity information: BIRCH used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• BIRCH (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Hard close-grained wood of any of various birch trees; used especially in furniture and interior finishes and plywood

Classified under:

Nouns denoting plants

Hypernyms ("birch" is a kind of...):

wood (the hard fibrous lignified substance under the bark of trees)

Holonyms ("birch" is a substance of...):

birch; birch tree (any betulaceous tree or shrub of the genus Betula having a thin peeling bark)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Any betulaceous tree or shrub of the genus Betula having a thin peeling bark

Classified under:

Nouns denoting plants

Synonyms:

birch; birch tree

Hypernyms ("birch" is a kind of...):

tree (a tall perennial woody plant having a main trunk and branches forming a distinct elevated crown; includes both gymnosperms and angiosperms)

Meronyms (substance of "birch"):

birch (hard close-grained wood of any of various birch trees; used especially in furniture and interior finishes and plywood)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "birch"):

Betula alleghaniensis; Betula leutea; yellow birch (tree of eastern North America with thin lustrous yellow or grey bark)

American white birch; Betula cordifolia; Betula papyrifera; canoe birch; paper birch; paperbark birch (small American birch with peeling white bark often worked into e.g. baskets or toy canoes)

American gray birch; American grey birch; Betula populifolia; gray birch; grey birch (medium-sized birch of eastern North America having white or pale grey bark and valueless wood; occurs often as a second-growth forest tree)

Betula pendula; common birch; European white birch; silver birch (European birch with silvery white peeling bark and markedly drooping branches)

Betula pubescens; downy birch; white birch (European birch with dull white to pale brown bark and somewhat drooping hairy branches)

Betula nigra; black birch; red birch; river birch (birch of swamps and river bottoms throughout the eastern United States having reddish-brown bark)

Betula lenta; black birch; cherry birch; sweet birch (common birch of the eastern United States having spicy brown bark yielding a volatile oil and hard dark wood used for furniture)

Betula neoalaskana; Yukon white birch (Alaskan birch with white to pale brown bark)

Betula fontinalis; mountain birch; swamp birch; water birch; Western birch; Western paper birch (birch of western United States resembling the paper birch but having brownish bark)

American dwarf birch; Betula glandulosa; Newfoundland dwarf birch (small shrub of colder parts of North America and Greenland)

Holonyms ("birch" is a member of...):

Betula; genus Betula (a genus of trees of the family Betulaceae (such as birches))

Sense 3

Meaning:

A switch consisting of a twig or a bundle of twigs from a birch tree; used to hit people as punishment

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

birch; birch rod

Context example:

my father never spared the birch

Hypernyms ("birch" is a kind of...):

switch (a flexible implement used as an instrument of punishment)

Derivation:

birch (whip with a birch twig)

• BIRCH (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Consisting of or made of wood of the birch tree

Synonyms:

birch; birchen; birken

Similar:

woody (made of or containing or resembling wood)

• BIRCH (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they birch    ... he / she / it birches   
Past simple: birched   
Past participle: birched   
-ing form: birching   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Whip with a birch twig

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "birch" is one way to...):

flog; lash; lather; slash; strap; trounce; welt; whip (beat severely with a whip or rod)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody

Sentence example:

They want to birch the prisoners

Derivation:

birch (a switch consisting of a twig or a bundle of twigs from a birch tree; used to hit people as punishment)

 Context examples 

The beech, the oak, and even the birch were to be found among the tangle of trees which girt us in.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

In the Swedish population, the identified risk allergens came from peanut, birch, grass and cat, and in the British population from dust mite, grass and cat.

(New Approach to Predict Respiratory Allergy in Early Childhood, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

John Thornton was whittling the last touches on an axe-handle he had made from a stick of birch.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

White Fang sat down in the shadow of a birch and whimpered softly.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

A pentacyclic lupane-type triterpene derivative of betulin (isolated from the bark of Betula alba, the common white birch) with antiinflammatory, anti-HIV and antineoplastic activities.

(Betulinic Acid, NCI Thesaurus)

It was a beautiful evening; the last rays of the setting sun shone bright through the long stems of the trees upon the green underwood beneath, and the turtle-doves sang from the tall birches.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

He stood so still that a squirrel, busy with its harvesting, ran down a pine close beside him, saw him suddenly and skipped back, scolding so shrilly that Beth looked up, espied the wistful face behind the birches, and beckoned with a reassuring smile.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

There were many things new to me: for instance, hay-ricks in the trees, and here and there very beautiful masses of weeping birch, their white stems shining like silver through the delicate green of the leaves.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

From then on, night and day, Buck never left his prey, never gave it a moment’s rest, never permitted it to browse the leaves of trees or the shoots of young birch and willow.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)