Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The white poplar, Populus alba: so called from the white color of its twigs and leaves. See poplar. Also called abel-tree, and sometimes abbey.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The white poplar (Populus alba).

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a poplar that is widely cultivated in the United States; has white bark and leaves with whitish undersurfaces

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Dutch abeel, from Old French aubel, from Medieval Latin albellus, diminutive of Latin albus, white; see albho- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Dutch abeel, from Middle Dutch, from Norman abiel, from a diminutive of Latin albus ("white").

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Examples

  • Infection control precautions were substantially strengthened in all hospitals across the region, and we've been abele to contain community spread, as I say.

    CNN Transcript Apr 28, 2003 2003

  • Other varieties of the common white poplar or abele are occasionally useful, although most of them sprout badly and may become a nuisance.

    Manual of Gardening (Second Edition) 1906

  • The European mountain-ash -- which in beauty, dimensions, and healthfulness of growth is superior to our own [186] -- the horse-chestnut, and the abele, or silver poplar, are valuable additions to the ornamental trees of North America.

    Earth as Modified by Human Action, The~ Chapter 03 (historical) 1874

  • A park full of merry hay-makers; gay red and blue waggons; stalwart horses switching off the flies; dark avenues of tall elms; groups of abele, 'tossing their whispering silver to the sun'; and amid them the house, -- a great square red-brick mass, made light and cheerful though by quoins and windows of white Sarsden stone, with high peaked French roofs, broken by louvres and dormers, haunted by a thousand swallows and starlings.

    The Beauties of Nature and the Wonders of the World We Live In John Lubbock 1873

  • The sides of country roads where the abele has been planted are sometimes obstructed for a considerable distance by the thrifty shoots from underground.

    Handbook of the Trees of New England Lorin Low Dame 1860

  • Roman camps and scattered blocks of Sarsden stone, till we descend into the long green vale where, among groves of poplar and abele, winds silver Whit.

    Prose Idylls, New and Old Charles Kingsley 1847

  • A park full of merry haymakers; gay red and blue waggons; stalwart horses switching off the flies; dark avenues of tall elms; groups of abele, 'tossing their whispering silver to the sun;' and amid them the house.

    Prose Idylls, New and Old Charles Kingsley 1847

  • The best use of the poplar, and _abele_ (which are all of them hospitable trees, for any thing thrives under their shades) is for walks and avenues about grounds which are situated low, and near the water, till coming to be very old, they are apt to grow knurry, and out of proportion.

    Sylva, Vol. 1 (of 2) Or A Discourse of Forest Trees John Evelyn 1663

  • _abele_, and we have of late _abele_ much transported out of Holland:

    Sylva, Vol. 1 (of 2) Or A Discourse of Forest Trees John Evelyn 1663

  • [Bailey, in his _Dictionary_, says, "An abele-tree is a fine kind of white poplar."

    Notes and Queries, Number 74, March 29, 1851 A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc. Various 1852

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