Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In America— the swamp white oak (see white oak, under oak)
  • noun the swamp post-oak (see post-oak)
  • noun the swamp Spanish oak (see pin-oak).
  • noun In Australia— a broom-like leguminous shrub or small tree, Viminaria denudata (also called swamp-broom)
  • noun a tree of the genus Casuarina, as C. suberosa, C. equisetifolia, or C. paludosa. (See she-oak.) These trees are of a handsome but funereal aspect.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • But these deciduous trees, that had rioted in green through spring and summer, wrapped themselves in robes to die, the thinner the more royal; the maples in scarlet, the swamp-oak in purple -- bloody purple where the sun smote on its upper boughs.

    Lady Good-for-Nothing Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch 1903

  • He turned, and beheld a tall figure, in whose face, albeit mossed like a swamp-oak with beard, beamed a cheerful earnestness that was as like Philip's enthusiasm as a star is like a comet.

    Tiger-lilies 1867

  • He turned, and beheld a tall figure, in whose face, albeit mossed like a swamp-oak with beard, beamed a cheerful earnestness that was as like Philip's enthusiasm as a star is like a comet.

    Tiger-Lilies. A Novel. 1867

  • "Ah! -- But am I again mistaken, (his eye falling on the swamp-oak stick,) or don't you go a little lame, sir?"

    The Confidence-Man 1857

  • In one hand he carried a heavy walking-stick of swamp-oak; with the other, led a puny girl, walking in moccasins, not improbably his child, but evidently of alien maternity, perhaps Creole, or even Camanche.

    The Confidence-Man 1857

  • In one hand he carried a heavy walking-stick of swamp-oak; with the other, led a puny girl, walking in moccasins, not improbably his child, but evidently of alien maternity, perhaps Creole, or even

    The Confidence-Man Herman Melville 1855

  • "Ah! -- But am I again mistaken, (his eye falling on the swamp-oak stick,) or don't you go a little lame, sir?"

    The Confidence-Man Herman Melville 1855

  • W.S.W., for about two miles over good plains; then through light brushes of swamp-oak, cypress, box, and acacia pendula, for about twelve miles, to another creek leading northerly.

    Two Expeditions into the Interior of Southern Australia — Volume I Charles Sturt 1832

  • From the creek, I struck away to my left, and after penetrating through a belt of swamp-oak and minor shrubs, got on a small plain, which I crossed N.E. and, to my annoyance, found it covered with rhagodia and salsolae.

    Two Expeditions into the Interior of Southern Australia — Volume I Charles Sturt 1832

  • Beneath us to the S.E. the rich and lightly timbered valley through which the Morumbidgee flows, extended, and parts of the river were visible through the dark masses of swamp-oak by which it was lined, or glittering among the flooded-gum trees, that grew in its vicinity.

    Two Expeditions into the Interior of Southern Australia — Volume 2 Charles Sturt 1832

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