Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A small wood or stand of trees lacking dense undergrowth.
  • noun A group of trees planted and cultivated for the production of fruit or nuts.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A group of trees of indefinite extent, but not large enough to constitute a forest; especially, such a group considered as furnishing shade for avenues or walks; a small wood free from underbrush.
  • noun [In the authorized version of the Bible grove is used erroneously— As a translation (following the Septuagint and Vulgate) of the Hebrew word Asherah (pl. Asherim). The revised version retains Asherah, inserting “or obelisk” in the margin. It is now commonly understood as meaning a divinity or an image of a divinity worshiped by lewd rites, and as a variation in form of the name Astarte or Ashtaroth.
  • noun As a translation of the Hebrew word eshel in Gen. xxi. 33, rendered tree in 1 Sam. xxxi. 13, and in both passages in the revised version tamarisk tree.]
  • noun Synonyms Woods, Park, etc. See forest.
  • noun Same as groove

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

  • noun A smaller group of trees than a forest, and without underwood, planted, or growing naturally as if arranged by art; a wood of small extent.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A small forest.
  • noun An orchard of fruit trees.
  • noun Wicca A place of worship

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

  • noun a small growth of trees without underbrush
  • noun garden consisting of a small cultivated wood without undergrowth

Etymologies

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

[Middle English, from Old English grāf.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old English grāf.

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Examples

  • COOPER: And that smoke on the left-hand side of the screen, Walter saying that somewhere around that smoke the remnants of an entire Iraqi battalion who were laying in wait in what he described as a grove, discovered by the Kiowa scout helicopters that was moving in advance of the troops in the 7th Cavalry.

    CNN Transcript Mar 23, 2003 2003

  • But hardly anyone anywhere in the world writes olive orchard; olive grove is far more common.

    Word Court 2004

  • But hardly anyone anywhere in the world writes olive orchard; olive grove is far more common.

    Word Court 2004

  • On they went, and it led them straight to a great open dell, covered with the loveliest flowers, bordered with banks of wild strawberries, and all overshadowed by one enormous oak, whose like had never been seen in grove or forest.

    Granny's Wonderful Chair 1928

  • Soon evening comes and the bamboo grove is silent.

    Fir-Flower Tablets: Poems Translated From the Chinese 1921

  • The nutmeg-trees are rather sparsely planted, and form a thin grove under a canopy of tall kanarie-trees, which interlace high overhead.

    Insulinde: Experiences of a Naturalist's Wife in the Eastern Archipelago 1887

  • Hence the expression, "image of the grove," is explained (2Ki 21: 7). images -- literally, "images to the sun," that is, to Baal, who answers to the sun, as Astarte to the hosts of heaven (2Ki 23: 5; Job 31: 26).

    Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible 1871

  • The big-tree grove is eight miles long; the largest tree measures 123 ft. in circumference twelve feet from the ground.

    Californian Wonders 1863

  • BTW read the Old Test and look up the word grove and see how they made their sons and daughters

    Alex Jones' Prison Planet.com 2009

  • It is a challenging launch through a silver-leaf tree grove from a short net-covered runoff.

    Muti 2009

Comments

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  • Farewell, green fields and happy groves,

    Where flocks have took delight.

    Where lambs have nibbled, silent moves

    The feet of angels bright;

    Unseen they pour blessing,

    And joy without ceasing,

    On each bud and blossom,

    And each sleeping bosom.

    - William Blake, 'Night'.

    November 1, 2008