The Collaborative International Dictionary
Oak \Oak\ ([=o]k), n. [OE. oke, ok, ak, AS. [=a]c; akin to D. eik, G. eiche, OHG. eih, Icel. eik, Sw. ek, Dan. eeg.]
(Bot.) Any tree or shrub of the genus Quercus. The oaks have alternate leaves, often variously lobed, and staminate flowers in catkins. The fruit is a smooth nut, called an acorn, which is more or less inclosed in a scaly involucre called the cup or cupule. There are now recognized about three hundred species, of which nearly fifty occur in the United States, the rest in Europe, Asia, and the other parts of North America, a very few barely reaching the northern parts of South America and Africa. Many of the oaks form forest trees of grand proportions and live many centuries. The wood is usually hard and tough, and provided with conspicuous medullary rays, forming the silver grain.
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The strong wood or timber of the oak.
Note: Among the true oaks in America are:
Barren oak, or
Black-jack, Quercus nigra.
Basket oak, Quercus Michauxii.
Black oak, Quercus tinctoria; -- called also yellow oak or quercitron oak.
Bur oak (see under Bur.), Quercus macrocarpa; -- called also over-cup or mossy-cup oak.
Chestnut oak, Quercus Prinus and Quercus densiflora.
Chinquapin oak (see under Chinquapin), Quercus prinoides.
Coast live oak, Quercus agrifolia, of California; -- also called enceno.
Live oak (see under Live), Quercus virens, the best of all for shipbuilding; also, Quercus Chrysolepis, of California.
Pin oak. Same as Swamp oak.
Post oak, Quercus obtusifolia.
Red oak, Quercus rubra.
Scarlet oak, Quercus coccinea.
Scrub oak, Quercus ilicifolia, Quercus undulata, etc.
Shingle oak, Quercus imbricaria.
Spanish oak, Quercus falcata.
Swamp Spanish oak, or
Pin oak, Quercus palustris.
Swamp white oak, Quercus bicolor.
Water oak, Quercus aquatica.
Water white oak, Quercus lyrata.
Willow oak, Quercus Phellos. [1913 Webster] Among the true oaks in Europe are:
Bitter oak, or
Turkey oak, Quercus Cerris (see Cerris).
Cork oak, Quercus Suber.
English white oak, Quercus Robur.
Evergreen oak,
Holly oak, or
Holm oak, Quercus Ilex.
Kermes oak, Quercus coccifera.
Nutgall oak, Quercus infectoria.
Note: Among plants called oak, but not of the genus Quercus, are:
African oak, a valuable timber tree ( Oldfieldia Africana).
Australian oak or She oak, any tree of the genus Casuarina (see Casuarina).
Indian oak, the teak tree (see Teak).
Jerusalem oak. See under Jerusalem.
New Zealand oak, a sapindaceous tree ( Alectryon excelsum).
Poison oak, a shrub once not distinguished from poison ivy, but now restricted to Rhus toxicodendron or Rhus diversiloba.
Silky oak or Silk-bark oak, an Australian tree ( Grevillea robusta).
Green oak, oak wood colored green by the growth of the mycelium of certain fungi.
Oak apple, a large, smooth, round gall produced on the leaves of the American red oak by a gallfly ( Cynips confluens). It is green and pulpy when young.
Oak beauty (Zo["o]l.), a British geometrid moth ( Biston prodromaria) whose larva feeds on the oak.
Oak gall, a gall found on the oak. See 2d Gall.
Oak leather (Bot.), the mycelium of a fungus which forms leatherlike patches in the fissures of oak wood.
Oak pruner. (Zo["o]l.) See Pruner, the insect.
Oak spangle, a kind of gall produced on the oak by the insect Diplolepis lenticularis.
Oak wart, a wartlike gall on the twigs of an oak.
The Oaks, one of the three great annual English horse races (the Derby and St. Leger being the others). It was instituted in 1779 by the Earl of Derby, and so called from his estate.
To sport one's oak, to be ``not at home to visitors,'' signified by closing the outer (oaken) door of one's rooms. [Cant, Eng. Univ.]
Scrub \Scrub\ (skr[u^]b), n.
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One who labors hard and lives meanly; a mean fellow. ``A sorry scrub.''
--Bunyan.We should go there in as proper a manner as possible; nor altogether like the scrubs about us.
--Goldsmith. Something small and mean.
A worn-out brush.
--Ainsworth.A thicket or jungle, often specified by the name of the prevailing plant; as, oak scrub, palmetto scrub, etc.
(Stock Breeding) One of the common live stock of a region of no particular breed or not of pure breed, esp. when inferior in size, etc. [U.S.]
Vegetation of inferior quality, though sometimes thick and impenetrable, growing in poor soil or in sand; also, brush; -- called also scrub brush. See Brush, above.
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(Forestry) A low, straggling tree of inferior quality.
Scrub bird (Zo["o]l.), an Australian passerine bird of the family Atrichornithid[ae], as Atrichia clamosa; -- called also brush bird.
Scrub oak (Bot.), the popular name of several dwarfish species of oak. The scrub oak of New England and the Middle States is Quercus ilicifolia, a scraggy shrub; that of the Southern States is a small tree ( Q. Catesb[ae]i); that of the Rocky Mountain region is Q. undulata, var. Gambelii.
Scrub robin (Zo["o]l.), an Australian singing bird of the genus Drymodes.
Wiktionary
n. (context US English) the popular name of several dwarfish species of oak in the United States.
WordNet
n. any of various chiefly American small shrubby oaks often a dominant form on thin dry soils sometimes forming dense thickets
Wikipedia
Usage examples of "scrub oak".
He was looking north to Quidnet across the ash-black remains of the arrowroot and scrub oak thickets Angelica Brand's people had cleared, over the water to the low barrier beach that separated the pond from the ocean.
I sensed the oncoming forces even before I could hear them, and I edged Gairloch into the trees, far enough in that we wouldn't be seen, but close enough for me to peer from behind a bushy scrub oak whose fall-yellow leaves had faded to winter-gray.
Finally, he pulled the mare over next to a scrub oak and dismounted.
Even a few fields plowed into it, and the odd low thicket of waxy-leaved scrub oak.
He found a spot some twenty yards north of the main road, where he could peer through the sparse branches of a scrub oak and see both the road and Tarolt's dwelling.
The long slopes were thick with scrub oak, chinquapin, and witchhazel, too thin-soiled to support the big beeches that predominated further south.
Red rock gave way to bleached limestone, scrub oak and pine to sharp-twigged, sticky-leaved brush, then to taller oaks with large leaves, thick boles, and heavy shadows that hid the moon and stars.
He studies the rocky slope below, the scattered pines and the scrub oak, then laughs harshly.
He squirms around under the scrub oak, trying to find the speaker, but all he can hear is the rustle of leaves in the hot breeze of autumn.
He blinked once, and found himself not on the ridge, as he had expected, but in a small natural clearing, edged with scarlet maples and yellow scrub oak.
A sparse thicket of scrub oak and leatherleaf covered the outer slopes.