tree
(triː )
Word forms: trees
1. countable noun [oft noun NOUN] A1
A tree is a tall plant that has a hard trunk, branches, and leaves.
I planted those apple trees.
...a variety of shrubs and trees.
2. See also Christmas tree, family tree
3. to be barking up the wrong tree phrase [usually cont]
If you say that someone is barking up the wrong tree, you mean that they are following the wrong course of action because their beliefs or ideas about something are incorrect. [informal]
Scientists in Switzerland realised that most other researchers had been barking up the wrong tree.
4. can't see the wood for the trees phrase
If someone can't see the wood for the trees in British English, or can't see the forest for the trees in American English, they are very involved in the details of something and so they do not notice what is important about the thing as a whole.
5. the top of the tree phrase [usu prep PHR]
If you say that someone is at the top of the tree, you mean that they have reached the highest level in their career or profession. [British]
He sees himself going right to the top of the tree.
Image of tree
© Jan Martin Will, Shutterstock
Quotations:
The tree is known by its fruit Bible: St. Matthew
I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a treeTrees
A poem lovely as a treeTrees
Of all the trees that grow so fair,
Old England to adorn,
Greater are none beneath the Sun,
Than Oak, and Ash, and ThornPuck of Pook's Hill
Old England to adorn,
Greater are none beneath the Sun,
Than Oak, and Ash, and ThornPuck of Pook's Hill
Idioms:
up a gum tree [British, old-fashioned]
in a very difficult situation
It's a good job we started when we did or we really would be up a gum tree now.
Easy Learning Idioms Dictionary. Copyright © HarperCollins Publishers
bark up the wrong tree
to follow the wrong course of action because your beliefs or ideas about something are incorrect
If you plan to become a writer because it will make you lots of money, you're barking up the wrong tree.
Easy Learning Idioms Dictionary. Copyright © HarperCollins Publishers
be at the top of the tree [British]
to have reached the highest level in a career or profession
She has been at the top of the acting tree for 35 years.
Easy Learning Idioms Dictionary. Copyright © HarperCollins Publishers
out of your tree [informal]
crazy or behaving very strangely, sometimes as a result of drinking alcohol
It was obvious they had been drinking. They were both out of their tree.
Easy Learning Idioms Dictionary. Copyright © HarperCollins Publishers
Collocations:
acres of trees trim a tree tropical tree walnut tree willow tree
Nine-and-a-half acres of trees, planted in the form of a huge medieval cathedral - beautiful and calm.
Times, Sunday Times
The design sets giant waterfalls in the footprints of the vanished twin towers amid eight acres of trees.
Times, Sunday Times
Rediscovered 25 years ago after decades hidden fromm view, now winding paths take you through more than 200 acres of trees and plants from all over the world.
The Sun
Of those farms, 686 harvested 100 acre or more, which accounted for over 196,000 of the total acres of trees harvested.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
This act allowed homesteaders to acquire 160 acres of land by planting 40 acres of trees.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
Last week, days before the case was due to be heard in court, they agreed to trim the trees.
Times, Sunday Times
He demanded that his neighbours trim the trees to restore his views and sunlight.
Times, Sunday Times
Others trimmed the trees and cleared the tracks.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
The owner refused to remove or trim the trees, and the lighthouse board concluded that the light was not useful and should be discontinued.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
Seeds from a tropical tree could be used to purify drinking water.
Times, Sunday Times
This tropical tree has a straight tall trunk and its leaves are deciduous in winter.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
The tropical tree dwellers have spread into the temperate and coniferous forests.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
However, the sources of the incised patterns are the trunks of palms, cycads and tropical tree ferns.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
Distinctive bacterial communities in the rhizoplane of four tropical tree species.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
Why are many of the kernels from my walnut tree rotten?
Times, Sunday Times (2007)
When you get up in the morning, are you looking at roadworks or a walnut tree?
Times, Sunday Times (2014)
We built a conservatory and planted figs, a mulberry and a walnut tree.
Times, Sunday Times (2008)
Will a pair of cattle egrets find an attractive willow tree in some lonely, marshy place this spring and follow their example?
Times, Sunday Times (2008)
The weeping willow tree can often be spotted drooping into lakes and rivers.
Times, Sunday Times (2010)
Golden light plays on the looping branches of a willow tree down by the riverside.
Times, Sunday Times (2016)
WHAT is causing yellow spots on my Kilmarnock willow tree?
The Sun (2015)
He weighed some soil, put it in a pot and waited five years for a willow tree to grow.
Times, Sunday Times (2015)
Translations:
Chinese: 树
Japanese: 木