HAZEL

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does hazel mean? 

• HAZEL (noun)
  The noun HAZEL has 4 senses:

1. Australian tree grown especially for ornament and its fine-grained wood and bearing edible nuts

2. the fine-grained wood of a hazelnut tree (genus Corylus) and the hazel tree (Australian genus Pomaderris)

3. any of several shrubs or small trees of the genus Corylus bearing edible nuts enclosed in a leafy husk

4. a shade of brown that is yellowish or reddish; it is a greenish shade of brown when used to describe the color of someone's eyes

  Familiarity information: HAZEL used as a noun is uncommon.

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

1. of a light brown or yellowish brown color

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

 Dictionary entry details 

• HAZEL (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Australian tree grown especially for ornament and its fine-grained wood and bearing edible nuts

Classified under:

Nouns denoting plants

Synonyms:

hazel; hazel tree; Pomaderris apetala

Hypernyms ("hazel" 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 "hazel"):

hazel (the fine-grained wood of a hazelnut tree (genus Corylus) and the hazel tree (Australian genus Pomaderris))

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

genus Pomaderris; Pomaderris (a genus of Australasian shrubs and trees)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The fine-grained wood of a hazelnut tree (genus Corylus) and the hazel tree (Australian genus Pomaderris)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting plants

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

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

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

hazel; hazelnut; hazelnut tree (any of several shrubs or small trees of the genus Corylus bearing edible nuts enclosed in a leafy husk)

hazel; hazel tree; Pomaderris apetala (Australian tree grown especially for ornament and its fine-grained wood and bearing edible nuts)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Any of several shrubs or small trees of the genus Corylus bearing edible nuts enclosed in a leafy husk

Classified under:

Nouns denoting plants

Synonyms:

hazel; hazelnut; hazelnut tree

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

nut tree (tree bearing edible nuts)

Meronyms (parts of "hazel"):

cob; cobnut; filbert; hazelnut (nut of any of several trees of the genus Corylus)

Meronyms (substance of "hazel"):

hazel (the fine-grained wood of a hazelnut tree (genus Corylus) and the hazel tree (Australian genus Pomaderris))

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

American hazel; Corylus americana (nut-bearing shrub of eastern North America)

cobnut; Corylus avellana; Corylus avellana grandis; filbert (small nut-bearing tree much grown in Europe)

beaked hazelnut; Corylus cornuta (hazel of western United States with conspicuous beaklike involucres on the nuts)

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

Corylus; genus Corylus (deciduous monoecious nut-bearing shrubs of small trees: hazel; sometimes placed in the subfamily or family Corylaceae)

Sense 4

Meaning:

A shade of brown that is yellowish or reddish; it is a greenish shade of brown when used to describe the color of someone's eyes

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

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

brown; brownness (an orange of low brightness and saturation)

Derivation:

hazel (of a light brown or yellowish brown color)

• HAZEL (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Of a light brown or yellowish brown color

Similar:

chromatic (being or having or characterized by hue)

Derivation:

hazel (a shade of brown that is yellowish or reddish; it is a greenish shade of brown when used to describe the color of someone's eyes)

 Context examples 

“Hast never seen tumblers before?” asked the elder, a black-browed, swarthy man, as brown and supple as a hazel twig.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

It is usually seen in people with blond or red hair and blue or hazel eyes.

(Fitzpatrick Skin Type II, NCI Thesaurus)

It is seen in people with blond or red hair and blue or hazel eyes.

(Fitzpatrick Skin Type I, NCI Thesaurus)

This little sunny-faced girl with the dimpled cheek and rosy lips; the satin-smooth hazel hair, and the radiant hazel eyes?

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

It is very pleasant to see the first green shoots upon the hedges and the catkins on the hazels once again.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

This nut, he continued, with playful solemnity, while so many of his brethren have fallen and been trodden under foot, is still in possession of all the happiness that a hazel nut can be supposed capable of.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

However, an unlucky school-boy aimed a hazel nut directly at my head, which very narrowly missed me; otherwise it came with so much violence, that it would have infallibly knocked out my brains, for it was almost as large as a small pumpkin, but I had the satisfaction to see the young rogue well beaten, and turned out of the room.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

Then he bought for the first two the fine clothes and pearls and diamonds they had asked for: and on his way home, as he rode through a green copse, a hazel twig brushed against him, and almost pushed off his hat: so he broke it off and brought it away; and when he got home he gave it to his daughter.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

Three hazel switches a day have I broke across his shoulders, and he takes no more notice than you have seen him to-day.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

She came and shook hand with me when she heard that I was her governess; and as I led her in to breakfast, I addressed some phrases to her in her own tongue: she replied briefly at first, but after we were seated at the table, and she had examined me some ten minutes with her large hazel eyes, she suddenly commenced chattering fluently.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)