Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Ecology A biome characterized by hot dry summers and cool moist winters and dominated by a dense growth of mostly small-leaved evergreen shrubs, as that found in the foothills of California.
- n. A dense thicket of shrubs and small trees.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A close growth, more or less extensive, of low evergreen oaks.
- n. Any very dense thicket of low thorny shrubs which exclusively occupy the ground; sometimes, a thick growth of cacti.
Wiktionary
- n. A region of shrubs, typically dry in the summer and rainy in the winter. The coast of the Mediterranean is such a region.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A thicket of low evergreen oaks.
- n. An almost impenetrable thicket or succession of thickets of thorny shrubs and brambles.
WordNet 3.0
- n. dense vegetation consisting of stunted trees or bushes
Etymologies
- Spanish, from chaparro, evergreen oak, from Basque txapar, diminutive of saphar, thicket.
Examples
“On steep hill and mountain slopes too dry to support oak woodland or oak forest, much of the vegetation is scrub or "dwarf forest" know as chaparral, which varies in composition with elevation and exposure.”
California Coastal Chaparral Forest and Shrub Province (Bailey)
“Well the area of Greece, particularly Crete, is a typical location where you have what is called a chaparral environment or biome.”
“The Mediterranean California region is characterized by a mostly evergreen shrub vegetation called chaparral, plus patches of oak woodland, grassland, and some coniferous forest on upper mountain slopes.”
“She is a lovely woman, and her chaparral is a delight; even if it was slightly surreal smelling this distillation of California with it's herbal woodiness and hint of wildfires with the smell of actual wildfires so prominent in the air.”
“Those who build and buy homes amidst chaparral, which is found on the south slope of the mountain adjacent to the city of San Bernardino, are asking for trouble.”
“The Mediterranean forests, woodlands and scrub biome (also called chaparral) has a very specific spatial distribution.”
“In many cases a plant called chaparral or it's scrub oaks or it's the low grasses that grow with it.”
“There were also thick, gray thornbushes called chaparral, interlaced amid the equally thorny mesquite.”
“One of the most charming features of the chaparral is the mountain ash, especially when the berries are ripe and red.”
“Another feature of the chaparral is the scrub oak.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘chaparral’.
ruzuzu Hahaha! Okay. I get it now. Mar 19, 2011
pterodactyl Here, ruzuzu, try this link. I guarantee you will never hear the word "chaparral" the same way again. :-) Mar 19, 2011
ruzuzu I can't get pterodactyl's link to work. :-( Mar 18, 2011
Wordplayer Missed by nine people at the 2011 county spelling bee! Mar 18, 2011
yarb Citation on arroyo. Aug 26, 2008
pterodactyl Every time I hear this word, I remember a piece of music, with a very particular rhythm:
"Chaparral!" (pause, pause, pause)
"Chaparral!" (pause, pause, pause)
Until today, I had no idea why this was. I mean, who would write a song about Californian shrubbery? But now, I've figured it out. It's a distorted relic of my childhood, and you can view it here, if you've no aversion to bagpipes. Jul 4, 2008