birch
UK /bɜːtʃ/ · US /bɝt͡ʃ/ noun, verb, proper noun
Forms birches birching birched Birchs
- noun Any of various trees of the genus Betula, native to countries in the Northern Hemisphere.
- noun A hard wood taken from the birch tree, typically used to make furniture.
- noun A stick, rod or bundle of twigs made from birch wood, used for punishment.
- noun A birch-bark canoe.
- verb (transitive) To punish with a stick, bundle of twigs, or rod made of birch wood.
- verb (transitive) To punish as though one were using a stick, bundle of twigs, or rod made of birch wood.
- proper noun A surname.
- proper noun A nickname of the surname Birchall.
- proper noun A village and civil parish in Colchester borough, Essex, England (OS grid ref TL9419).
- proper noun A small village in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale, Greater Manchester, England (OS grid ref SD8507).
- proper noun A township in Beltrami County, Minnesota, United States.
- proper noun An extinct town in Eureka County, Nevada, United States.
- proper noun A town in Lincoln County, Wisconsin, United States.
- proper noun An unincorporated community in the town of Sanborn, Ashland County, Wisconsin.
Synonyms
Etymology
From Middle English birche, birk, from Old English birċe, bierċe, from Proto-West Germanic *birkijā, from Proto-Germanic *birkijǭ, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰerHǵos.
Compare West Frisian bjirk, German Birke, variant of *berkō (compare Dutch berk, Danish birk, Swedish björk, Norwegian bjørk), Sanskrit भूर्ज (bhūrjá), Lithuanian béržas, Czech bříza, Ossetian бӕрз (bærz), Russian берёза (berjóza)), Latin fraxinus (“ash tree, ash javelin”), Albanian bredh.
Webster’s 1913
- noun A tree of several species, constituting the genus Betula; as, the white or common birch (B. alba) (also called silver birch and lady birch); the dwarf birch (B. glandulosa); the paper or canoe birch (B. papyracea); the yellow birch (B. lutea); the black or cherry birch (B. lenta).
- noun The wood or timber of the birch.
- adjective Of or pertaining to the birch; birchen.
- verb To whip with a birch rod or twig; to flog.
Etymology [OE. birche, birk, AS. birce, beorc; akin to Icel. björk, Sw. björk, Dan. birk, D. berk, OHG. piricha, MHG. birche, birke, G. birke, Russ. bereza, Pol. brzoza, Serv. breza, Skr. bh. sq. root254. Cf. 1st Birk.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “birch”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details