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Birch   /bərtʃ/   Listen
noun
Birch  n.  (pl. birches)  
1.
A tree of several species, constituting the genus Betula; as, the white or common birch (Betula alba) (also called silver birch and lady birch); the dwarf birch (Betula glandulosa); the paper or canoe birch (Betula papyracea); the yellow birch (Betula lutea); the black or cherry birch (Betula lenta).
2.
The wood or timber of the birch.
3.
A birch twig or birch twigs, used for flogging. Note: The twigs of the common European birch (B. alba), being tough and slender, were formerly much used for rods in schools. They were also made into brooms. "The threatening twigs of birch."
4.
A birch-bark canoe.
Birch of Jamaica, a species (Bursera gummifera) of turpentine tree.
Birch partridge. (Zool.) See Ruffed grouse.
Birch wine, wine made of the spring sap of the birch.
Oil of birch.
(a)
An oil obtained from the bark of the common European birch (Betula alba), and used in the preparation of genuine (and sometimes of the imitation) Russia leather, to which it gives its peculiar odor.
(b)
An oil prepared from the black birch (Betula lenta), said to be identical with the oil of wintergreen, for which it is largely sold.



verb
Birch  v. t.  (past & past part. birched; pres. part. birching)  To whip with a birch rod or twig; to flog.



adjective
Birch  adj.  Of or pertaining to the birch; birchen.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Birch" Quotes from Famous Books



... He also knew where the great peel rested, on their annual migration from sea to moor; where the kingfisher's nest of fish-bones lay hidden; where the otter had her home beneath the bank, and its inland vent-hole behind a silver birch. ...
— Children of the Mist • Eden Phillpotts

... the higher type of tree. The landscape, in Europe and America, begins to wear a modern aspect. Long before the end of the Cretaceous most of the modern genera of Angiosperm trees have developed. To the fig and sassafras are now added the birch, beech, oak, poplar, walnut, willow, ivy, mulberry, holly, laurel, myrtle, maple, oleander, magnolia, plane, bread-fruit, and sweet-gum. Most of the American trees of to-day are known. The sequoias (the giant ...
— The Story of Evolution • Joseph McCabe

... event in their uneventful days; the farm with its red gables and its crowd of gobbling turkeys; the sweet-smelling fir groves with their sandy paths; and their own particular wood where beeches, oaks, and silvery birch trees were intermingled, with here and there a tall pine sometimes stately and erect, sometimes ...
— We Two • Edna Lyall

... water, beckoning the phantom forth, and—as it declined to venture—seeking a passage for herself into its sphere of impalpable earth and unattainable sky. Soon finding, however, that either she or the image was unreal, she turned elsewhere for better pastime. She made little boats out of birch-bark, and freighted them with snail-shells, and sent out more ventures on the mighty deep than any merchant in New England; but the larger part of them foundered near the shore. She seized a live horseshoe by the tail, and made prize of several five-fingers, and ...
— The Scarlet Letter • Nathaniel Hawthorne

... you've set out it's no more work to keep things shipshape than to let 'em go helter-skelter. Now here's a basket. Load into it as many of those birch logs as you can carry and bring 'em upstairs. I've kindlings ...
— Walter and the Wireless • Sara Ware Bassett


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