forest

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A dense growth of trees, plants, and underbrush covering a large area.
2. n. Something that resembles a large, dense growth of trees, as in density, quantity, or profusion: a forest of skyscrapers.
3. n. A defined area of land formerly set aside in England as a royal hunting ground.
4. v. To plant trees on.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A tract of land covered with trees; a wood, usually one of considerable extent; a tract of woodland with or without inclosed intervals of open and uncultivated ground.
2. n. In Great Britain, a designation still retained for some large tracts of land or districts formerly but not now covered with trees or constituting royal forests (see below), especially such as have some of the distinctive characteristics or uses of wild or broken woodland, as the Forest of Dean in England or some of the deer-forests of Scotland.
3. n. In English law, and formerly also in Scots law, a territory of woody grounds and pastures privileged for wild beasts and fowls of chase and warren to rest and abide in, generally belonging to the sovereign, and set apart for his recreation, or granted by him to others, under special laws, and having officers specially appointed to look after it; a hunting-preserve maintained at public expense for royal or aristocratic use: specifically called a royal forest. Such forests were once very numerous, and often of great extent; but most of them have been disafforested, and those still kept up are now chiefly used as public pleasure grounds.
4. Pertaining or relating to forests; sylvan: as, forest law.
5. To cover with trees or wood; afforest.
6. n. In phytogeography, specifically, a closed woodland, that is, one in which the crowns of the trees touch.

Wiktionary

1. n. A dense collection of trees covering a relatively large area. Larger than woods.
2. n. Any dense collection or amount.
3. n. historical A defined area of land set aside in England as royal hunting ground or for other privileged use; all such areas.
4. n. graph theory A disjoint union of trees.
5. v. transitive To cover an area with trees.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. An extensive wood; a large tract of land covered with trees; in the United States, a wood of native growth, or a tract of woodland which has never been cultivated.
2. n. (Eng. Law) A large extent or precinct of country, generally waste and woody, belonging to the sovereign, set apart for the keeping of game for his use, not inclosed, but distinguished by certain limits, and protected by certain laws, courts, and officers of its own.
3. adj. Of or pertaining to a forest; sylvan.
4. v. To cover with trees or wood.

WordNet 3.0

1. v. establish a forest on previously unforested land
2. n. land that is covered with trees and shrubs
3. n. the trees and other plants in a large densely wooded area