birch
any tree or shrub of the genus Betula, comprising species with a smooth, laminated outer bark and close-grained wood.: Compare birch family.
the wood itself.
a birch rod, or a bundle of birch twigs, used especially for whipping.
to beat or punish with or as if with a birch: The young ruffians were birched soundly by their teacher.
Origin of birch
1Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use birch in a sentence
Poor child,” thought Eric; “dear little Vernon: and he is to be flogged, perhaps birched, to-morrow.
Eric, or Little by Little | Frederic W. FarrarThe three boys wandered away as far as Acle, eleven miles from Norwich, whence they were ignomimously brought back and birched.
George Borrow and His Circle | Clement King ShorterTake care of your book, cap, and gloves, or youll be birched on your bare bottom.
Early English Meals and Manners | VariousI hated this, and would rather have been birched secundum artem than to have seen the girls giggling at me.
Hugh Wynne, Free Quaker | S. Weir MitchellThe victims had first to go out into the woods to gather the branches with which later they were to be birched.
The Hansa Towns | Helen Zimmern
British Dictionary definitions for birch
/ (bɜːtʃ) /
any betulaceous tree or shrub of the genus Betula, having thin peeling bark: See also silver birch
the hard close-grained wood of any of these trees
the birch a bundle of birch twigs or a birch rod used, esp formerly, for flogging offenders
of, relating to, or belonging to the birch
consisting or made of birch
(tr) to flog with a birch
Origin of birch
1Derived forms of birch
- birchen, adjective
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Browse