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| to flee; abscond: |
| to introduce subtleties into or argue subtly about. |
1250–1300; Middle English < Old French < Late Latin forestis (silva) an unenclosed wood (as opposed to a park), derivative of Latin forīs outside. Compare foreign
Related forms
1. Forest, grove, wood refer to an area covered with trees. A forest is an extensive area, preserving some or all of its primitive wildness and usually having game or wild animals in it: Sherwood Forest; the Black Forest. A grove is a group or cluster of trees, usually not very large in area and cleared of underbrush. It is usually tended or cultivated: a shady grove; a grove of pines; an orange grove; a walnut grove. Woods (or a wood) resembles a forest but is a smaller tract of land, less wild in character, and generally closer to civilization: lost in the woods; a wood covering several acres.
- The pine trees framing the entrance to the forest appear to be normal.
- Fires have also contributed substantially to forest loss.
- But the agents withdrew after a sweep of the nearby forest turned up a lone suspect.
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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| forest (ˈfɒrɪst) | |
| —n | |
| 1. | a large wooded area having a thick growth of trees and plants |
| 2. | the trees of such an area |
| 3. | (NZ) Compare bush an area planted with exotic pines or similar trees |
| 4. | something resembling a large wooded area, esp in density: a forest of telegraph poles |
| 5. | law Compare park (formerly) an area of woodland, esp one owned by the sovereign and set apart as a hunting ground with its own laws and officers |
| 6. | (modifier) of, involving, or living in a forest or forests: a forest glade |
| —vb | |
| 7. | (tr) to create a forest (in); plant with trees |
| [C13: from Old French, from Medieval Latin forestis unfenced woodland, from Latin foris outside] | |
| 'forestal | |
| —adj | |
| foresteal | |
| —adj | |
| 'forested | |
| —adj | |
| 'forestless | |
| —adj | |
| 'forest-like | |
| —adj | |
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fore
forest
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forest  (fôr'ĭst) Pronunciation Key
A dense growth of trees and underbrush covering a large area. Forests exist in all regions of the Earth except for regions of extreme cold or dryness. |
Copyright © 2002. Published by Houghton Mifflin. All rights reserved.
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Forest definition
Heb. ya'ar, meaning a dense wood, from its luxuriance. Thus all the great primeval forests of Syria (Eccl. 2:6; Isa. 44:14; Jer. 5:6; Micah 5:8). The most extensive was the trans-Jordanic forest of Ephraim (2 Sam. 18:6, 8; Josh. 17:15, 18), which is probably the same as the wood of Ephratah (Ps. 132:6), some part of the great forest of Gilead. It was in this forest that Absalom was slain by Joab. David withdrew to the forest of Hareth in the mountains of Judah to avoid the fury of Saul (1 Sam. 22:5). We read also of the forest of Bethel (2 Kings 2:23, 24), and of that which the Israelites passed in their pursuit of the Philistines (1 Sam. 14:25), and of the forest of the cedars of Lebanon (1 Kings 4:33; 2 Kings 19:23; Hos. 14:5, 6). "The house of the forest of Lebanon (1 Kings 7:2; 10:17; 2 Chr. 9:16) was probably Solomon's armoury, and was so called because the wood of its many pillars came from Lebanon, and they had the appearance of a forest. (See BAALBEC.) Heb. horesh, denoting a thicket of trees, underwood, jungle, bushes, or trees entangled, and therefore affording a safe hiding-place. place. This word is rendered "forest" only in 2 Chr. 27:4. It is also rendered "wood", the "wood" in the "wilderness of Ziph," in which david concealed himself (1 Sam. 23:15), which lay south-east of Hebron. In Isa. 17:19 this word is in Authorized Version rendered incorrectly "bough." Heb. pardes, meaning an enclosed garden or plantation. Asaph is (Neh. 2:8) called the "keeper of the king's forest." The same Hebrew word is used Eccl. 2:5, where it is rendered in the plural "orchards" (R.V., "parks"), and Cant. 4: 13, rendered "orchard" (R.V. marg., "a paradise"). "The forest of the vintage" (Zech. 11:2, "inaccessible forest," or R.V. "strong forest") is probably a figurative allusion to Jerusalem, or the verse may simply point to the devastation of the region referred to. The forest is an image of unfruitfulness as contrasted with a cultivated field (Isa. 29:17; 32:15; Jer. 26:18; Hos. 2:12). Isaiah (10:19, 33, 34) likens the Assyrian host under Sennacherib (q.v.) to the trees of some huge forest, to be suddenly cut down by an unseen stroke.
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