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-West Germanic *treu, from Proto-Germanic *trewą (“tree, wood”), from pre-Germanic *dréwom, thematic e-grade derivative of Proto-Indo-European *dóru (“tree”). Cognates From the same Proto-Indo-European: Scots tree (“wood, rod, stick”), North Frisian tre, trä (“tree”), Middle Dutch tree > Dutch teer (“tree”), Danish træ (“tree”), Swedish trä (“wood”), träd (“tree”), Norwegian tre (“tree”), Icelandic tré (“tree”), Gothic 𐍄𐍂𐌹𐌿 (triu, “tree, wood, piece of wood”), Sanskrit दारु (dāru, “tree, wood”), Albanian dru (“tree, wood”), Welsh dâr (“oaks”), Ancient Greek δόρυ (dóru, “wood, spear”), Russian де́рево (dérevo) or дре́во (drévo), Tocharian A or. Related to tar, true.

noun

1. A perennial woody plant, not exactly defined, but differentiated from a shrub by its larger size (typically over a few meters; yards in height) or growth habit, usually having a single (or few) main axis or trunk unbranched for some distance above the ground and a head of branches and foliage.
   Hyperion is the tallest living tree in the world.
   Birds have a nest in a tree in the garden.
   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. April 5 1992, “The Full House”, in Jeeves and Wooster, Series 3, Episode 2
   When we see a train trapped behind (or embedded in) a fallen tree our first thought should be 'what was it doing there anyway?' […]Trees are also responsible for numerous minor delays in autumn [due to leaves falling on the track], which rolling stock engineers are supposed to cope with as usual. 2019 October, Ian Walmsley, “Cleaning up”, in Modern Railways, page 42
2. Any plant that is reminiscent of the above but not classified as a tree (in any 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, if the graph is finite, 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 representing divergence or possible choices.
   family tree; skill tree
10. The structure or wooden frame used in the construction of a saddle used in horse riding.
11. (in the plural, slang) Marijuana.
    I like good pussy and I like good trees / Smoke so much weed you wouldn't believe 2005, “Shake That”, in Eminem, Nate Dogg (lyrics), Curtain Call: The Hits
    Whiskey with the team, got it bubblin' / I got trees in my luggage, I got tings out in London / Hope UK, what you say? Fuck is you sayin'? 2018, “Ace Feat. Smino & Saba”, in Room 25, performed by Noname
12. (obsolete) A cross or gallows.
    Tyburn tree
13. (chemistry) A mass of crystals, aggregated in arborescent forms, obtained by precipitation of a metal from solution.
14. (cartomancy) The fifth Lenormand card.
15. (uncountable, mathematics) Alternative letter-case form of TREE.

verb

1. (transitive) To chase (an animal or person) up a tree.
   The dog treed the cat.
   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. 1897, Henry Howard et al., editors, Encyclopaedia of Sport, volume I, London: Lawrence & Bullen, page 599
   "And our dogs used to tree the cats on our property here, and we'd dispatch them." 2008, Monte Dwyer, Red In The Centre: The Australian Bush Through Urban Eyes, Monyer Pty Ltd, page 146
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
   Two suits and an overcoat hung in the closet over three pairs of carefully treed shoes. 1930, Dashiell Hammett, chapter 14, in The Maltese Falcon, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, page 165
4. (intransitive) To take refuge in a tree.