English Explanatory Dictionary

birch

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. Any of various trees of the genus Betula, native to countries in the Northern Hemisphere.
  2. A hard wood taken from the birch tree, typically used to make furniture.
  3. A stick, rod or bundle of twigs made from birch wood, used for punishment.
  4. A birch-bark canoe.
verb
  1. To punish with a stick, bundle of twigs, or rod made of birch wood.
  2. To punish as though one were using a stick, bundle of twigs, or rod made of birch wood.
name
  1. A surname.
  2. A nickname of the surname Birchall.
  3. A village and civil parish in Colchester borough, Essex, England (OS grid ref TL9419).
  4. A small village in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale, Greater Manchester, England (OS grid ref SD8507).
  5. A township in Beltrami County, Minnesota, United States.
  6. An extinct town in Eureka County, Nevada, United States.
  7. A town in Lincoln County, Wisconsin, United States.
  8. An unincorporated community in the town of Sanborn, Ashland County, Wisconsin.

Pronunciation

bû(r)ch /bɜːtʃ/ /bɝt͡ʃ/ en-us-birch.ogg

Word forms

birch birches birching birched Birchs

Etymology

PIE word *bʰerHǵós From Middle English birche, birk, from Old English birċe, bierċe, from Proto-West Germanic *birkijā, from Proto-Germanic *birkijǭ, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰerHǵos. Cognates Compare West Frisian bjirk, German Birke, variant of *berkō (compare Dutch berk, Danish birk, Swedish björk, Norwegian bjørk), Sanskrit भूर्ज (bhūrjá), Lithuanian béržas, Czech bříza, Ossetian бӕрз (bærz), Russian берёза (berjóza)), Latin fraxinus (“ash tree, ash javelin”), Albanian bredh.

Synonyms

makepeace switch

Derived words

American white birch Asian black birch birchbark birch beer birch bolete birch bracket birchen birch-leaved bellflower birchlike birch mouse birch of Jamaica birch oil birch partridge birch sap birch skeletonizer birch tar birch tree Birch Vale birch wine birch wood birchwood birchy black birch black birch tree canoe birch cherry birch Dahurian birch Daurian birch downy birch dwarf birch flame birch Japanese cherry birch Much Birch non-birch northern birch mouse oil of birch paper birch red birch river birch silver birch sweet birch water birch weeping birch white birch yellow birch bircher unbirched Birch reduction

Translations

Azerbaijani: tozağacı Catalan: bedoll Chinese Mandarin: 樺木 /桦木 Danish: birk Dutch: berk Finnish: koivu Finnish: koivupuu Hungarian: nyírfa Icelandic: birki Norwegian Bokmål: bjerk Norwegian Bokmål: bjørk Norwegian Nynorsk: bjørk Portuguese: bétula Russian: берёза Spanish: abedul Swahili: ubao wa mbetula Swedish: björk Tagalog: abedul Turkish: huş
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