Definition of "tree" []

• A perennial woody plant having a main trunk and usually a distinct crown. (noun)
• A plant or shrub resembling a tree in form or size. (noun)
• Something, such as a clothes tree, that resembles a tree in form. (noun)
• A wooden beam, post, stake, or bar used as part of a framework or structure. (noun)
• A saddletree. (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.

• "Adam's excuse for eating of the forbidden fruit, "She gave me of the tree and I did eat," is said to be thus ingeniously explained by the learned Rabbis: By giving him of the _tree_ is meant that Eve took a stout crab-tree cudgel, and gave her husband (in plain English) a sound rib-roasting, until he complied with her will!"
• "Consequently, all _goats_ were driven from the banks of this river; but one day, Theŏclos observed that the branches of a fig tree bent into the stream, and it immediately flashed into his mind that the Messenian word for _fig tree_ and _goat_ was the same."
• "The tree near the front of an ancient castle was called the _Covine tree_, probably because the lord received his company there."