Definition of "live oak" [live oak]

• Any of several American evergreen oaks, such as Quercus virginiana of Mexico and the southeast United States or Q. agrifolia of California. Also called encina. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "The back of his shirt was peppered with sweat by midday, and while the blacks ate their sandwiches of company-store balogna and potted meat in a grove of gum trees, he tethered his horse under a solitary live oak in the middle of a pepper field and sat in a folding chair a black man hand-carried to him for that purpose."
• "He was sitting halfway up a live oak just west of Halle's cabin, waiting."
• "He said that he'd gone to check on Jack and that Jack was fine, albeit naked and chilly and sitting near the top of a live oak tree in front of Halle's cabin."