Definition of "birch" []

• Any of various deciduous trees or shrubs of the genus Betula, native to the Northern Hemisphere and having unisexual flowers in catkins, alternate, simple, toothed leaves, and bark that often peels in thin papery layers. (noun)
• The hard, close-grained wood of any of these trees, used especially in furniture, interior finishes, and plywood. (noun)
• A rod from a birch, used to administer a whipping. (noun)
• To whip with or as if with a birch. (verb-transitive)

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.

• "But the meanest thing that I ever heard of his doing, was this: In these same woods -- the woods where the huckleberries and hazel nuts grew -- there were great multitudes of birch trees, of different species and among the rest, some of that species which goes by the name, among children, of _black birch_."
• "Hey twin birch is that a yellow lab I see in your pic?"
• "Silver birch is even better than paper birch, though both work fine."