tree

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A perennial woody plant having a main trunk and usually a distinct crown.
2. n. A plant or shrub resembling a tree in form or size.
3. n. Something, such as a clothes tree, that resembles a tree in form.
4. n. A wooden beam, post, stake, or bar used as part of a framework or structure.
5. n. A saddletree.
6. n. A diagram that has branches in descending lines showing relationships as of hierarchy or lineage: a family tree; a telephone tree.
7. n. Computer Science A structure for organizing or classifying data in which every item can be traced to a single origin through a unique path.
8. n. Archaic A gallows.
9. n. Archaic The cross on which Jesus was crucified.
10. v. To force up a tree: Dogs treed the raccoon.
11. v. Informal To force into a difficult position; corner.
12. v. To supply with trees: treed the field with oaks.
13. v. To stretch (a shoe or boot) onto a shoetree.
14. idiom. up a tree Informal In a situation of great difficulty or perplexity; helpless.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. In Queensland, same as bangkal.
2. n. A perennial plant which grows from the ground with a single permanent woody self-supporting trunk or stem, ordinarily to a height of at least 25 or 30 feet. The line which divides trees from shrubs is largely arbitrary, and dependent upon habit rather than size, the tree having a single trunk usually unbranched for some distance above the ground, while a shrub has usually several stems from the same root and each without a proper trunk. (See shrub.) Certain trees are anomalous or ambiguous in various respects. One is the giant cactus, with its columnar woody stem (see saguaro); another is the tree-fern. Some vines are of such dimensions as to form climbing trees—as, for example, species of Metrosideros in New Zealand, which at length destroy the supporting tree and stand in its place. The banana and plantain. though transient and somewhat herbaceons are called trees from their size. In a special use a low plant (as a rose) trained into tree-form is called a tree. A large trained vine is also sometimes so called. In general, trees are either endogenous or exogenous, by far the greater number both of individuals and of species belonging to the latter class. Those of which the whole foliage falls off periodically, leaving them bare in winter, are called deciduous; those of which the foliage falls only partially, a fresh crop of leaves being always supplied before the mature leaves are exhausted, are called evergreen. Trees are also distinguished as nuciferous, or nut-bearing; bacciferous, or berry-bearins; coniferous, or cone-bearing, etc. Some are forest-trees, and useful for timber or fuel; others are fruit-trees, and cultivated in gardens and orchards; others serve chiefly for shade and ornament.
3. n. A figure resembling a tree. Specifically— A figure drawn in the outline form of a tree, to receive the record of the root or source, main stem, and branches of a family: specifically called a genealogical or family tree.
4. n. A natural figuration having more or less resemblance to a tree, assumed by or appearing on the surface of some substances under certain conditions.
5. n. In mathematics, a diagram composed of branching lines.
6. n. In electrolytic cells, a formation of tree-like groups of crystals projecting from the plates. In some forms of storage batteries these tree-formations are apt to give trouble by short-circuiting the cells.
7. n. A gallows or gibbet; especially, the cross on which Christ was crucified.
8. n. The material of a tree; wood; timber.
9. n. A piece of wood; a stick; specifically, a staff or cudgel.
10. n. In mech., one of numerous pieces or framings of wood technically so called: generally in composition, but sometimes used separately in connection with an explanatory context. For those used in vehicles, see axletree, doubletree, swingletree, whiffletree, etc.; for those in ships, chess-tree, crosstree, trestletree, etc.; for others, boot-tree, saddletree, etc.
11. n. Same as arbor-vitæ, 1.
12. n. In annt., the arbor-vitæ of the cerebellum.
13. n. Synonyms Shrub, Bush, etc. See vegetable.
14. To drive into a tree, as a hunted animal fitted for climbing, such as animals of the cat kind, racoons, opossums, and squirrels; compel to take refuge in a tree, as a man fleeing from wolves.
15. Hence, figuratively, to deprive of the power of resistance; place at the mercy of an opponent; corner.
16. To form or shape on a tree made for the particular use: as, to tree a boot.
17. To take refuge in a tree, as a hunted animal.
18. To grow to the size of a tree.
19. To take the form of a tree, or a tree-like shape, as a metal deposited from a solution of one of its salts under the action of an electric current.

Wiktionary

1. n. A large plant, not exactly defined, but typically over four meters in height, a single trunk which grows in girth with age and branches (which also grow in circumference with age).
2. n. Any plant that is reminiscent of the above but not classified as a tree in the strict botanical sense: for example the banana "tree".
3. n. An object made from a tree trunk and having multiple hooks or storage platforms.
4. n. A device used to hold or stretch a shoe open.
5. n. The structural frame of a saddle.
6. n. A connected graph with no cycles or, equivalently, a connected graph with n vertices and n-1 edges.
7. n. A recursive data structure in which each node has zero or more nodes as children.
8. n. 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.
9. n. Any structure or construct having branches akin to (1).
10. n. The structure or wooden frame used in the construction of a saddle used in horse riding.
11. v. To chase (an animal or person) up a tree.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. Any perennial woody plant of considerable size (usually over twenty feet high) and growing with a single trunk.
2. n. Something constructed in the form of, or considered as resembling, a tree, consisting of a stem, or stock, and branches.
3. n. A piece of timber, or something commonly made of timber; -- used in composition, as in axletree, boottree, chesstree, crosstree, whiffletree, and the like.
4. n. A cross or gallows; as Tyburn tree.
5. n. Wood; timber.
6. n. A mass of crystals, aggregated in arborescent forms, obtained by precipitation of a metal from solution. See Lead tree, under Lead.
7. v. To drive to a tree; to cause to ascend a tree.
8. v. To place upon a tree; to fit with a tree; to stretch upon a tree. See Tree, n., 3.

WordNet 3.0

1. v. plant with trees
2. n. a tall perennial woody plant having a main trunk and branches forming a distinct elevated crown; includes both gymnosperms and angiosperms
3. n. English actor and theatrical producer noted for his lavish productions of Shakespeare (1853-1917)
4. v. force a person or an animal into a position from which he cannot escape
5. v. stretch (a shoe) on a shoetree
6. v. chase an animal up a tree
7. n. a figure that branches from a single root