liberty treen.
/ˈlɪbətɪ triː/, U.S. /ˈlɪbərdi ˌtri/ 1. Sometimes with the. The name given to a tree in Boston from which effigies were hung during protests against the Stamp Act in 1765.The tree became a symbol for the American cause and a popular site for political meetings; it was cut down by British soldiers in 1775.
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1765 Let. 16 Dec. in Public Advertiser (1766) 8 Feb. We..desire that you [sc. Andrew Oliver] would..appear under Liberty-Tree at Twelve o'Clock, to make a public Resignation. Your Non-Compliance, Sir, will incur the Displeasure of The True-born Sons of Liberty.
1766 Boston Select Men 26 Mar. A house..situate in newbury Street near Liberty Tree.
1776 A. Adams in J. Adams & A. Adams Familiar Lett. (1876) 180 I..ventured just as far as the stump of Liberty Tree.
1825 L. M. Child Rebels i. 15 They have merely suspended images of Lord Bute and your cousin Oliver, upon the Liberty tree.
1885 Bay State Monthly Apr. 47/2 This jovial company..first assembled at Liberty Tree, in Boston, where they drank fourteen toasts, and then adjourned to Liberty Tree Tavern.
1916 J. G. Dorrance Story of Forest 226 One of their first acts was to order the Liberty Tree cut down. Americans loved it, but it was hateful to the sight of the Englishmen.
1976 Ebony June 152/1 I went up to Boston to see what I could see. They..were whipping black men with pieces of the liberty tree.
1998 J. E. Triber True Republican iii. 50 Flags and streamers decorated ships, houses, and Liberty Tree.
2. (A name given to) any tree designated as a symbol of liberty. Also occasionally: a pole erected as a symbol of liberty; a liberty pole. Cf. tree of liberty n. at tree n. Compounds 3b.
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society > authority > lack of subjection > freedom or liberty > liberation > [noun] > symbol of
cap of liberty1709
tree of liberty1765
liberty pole1769
liberty tree1769
1769 Middlesex Jrnl. 14–16 Sept. On Saturday there was a general meeting also, at Liberty-tree, of all the inhabitants of, and country gentlemen then in Charles-Town.
1781 J. Tucker Cui Bono? 98 The American public orators, who are to figure away in future Times at their Liberty-Trees, and other Places of public Rendezvous.
1792 Gentleman's Mag. Dec. 1149/2 What kind of a Liberty-tree was meant to be erected in this country [sc. Great Britain] may be now fairly guessed at from Paine's last Address to the Convention of France.
1848 L. R. de Véricour & W. S. Chase Mod. French Lit. 400 The eagerness with which the people sought the benediction of the priests for the liberty-trees erected in Paris during the early displays of victorious joy.
1890 T. S. Perry tr. A. L. Imbert De Saint-Amand Citizeness Bonaparte iii. 27 A liberty-tree [Fr. un arbre de la liberté] was set out in the square.
1909 O. J. Harvey Hist. Wilkes-Barré, Lucerne County, Pa. x. 586 Sometimes a tall pole, specially erected, took the place of a tree and was designated as the ‘Liberty Tree’.
2007 J. M. Brophy Pop. Culture & Public Sphere in Rhineland iii. 135 Liberty trees became sites of upheaval that suspended social and political order.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, November 2010; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1765