"oak" Definition

Definitions for the word "oak" from multiple English dictionaries.

1. n.
Any tree or shrub of the genus Quercus. The oaks have alternate leaves, often variously lobed, and staminate flowers in catkins. The fruit is a smooth nut, called an acorn, which is more or less inclosed in a scaly involucre called the cup or cupule. There are now recognized about three hundred species, of which nearly fifty occur in the United States, the rest in Europe, Asia, and the other parts of North America, a very few barely reaching the northern parts of South America and Africa. Many of the oaks form forest trees of grand proportions and live many centuries. The wood is usually hard and tough, and provided with conspicuous medullary rays, forming the silver grain.
Source: The 1913 Webster Unabridged Dictionary, 1913
2. n.
The strong wood or timber of the oak.
Source: The 1913 Webster Unabridged Dictionary, 1913
3. n.
1 acorn-bearing tree with lobed leaves. 2 its durable wood. 3 (attrib.) Of oak. 4 (the oaks) (treated as sing.) Annual race at epsom for fillies. [old english]
Source: Oxford English Dictionary, 1884
4. slang
the outer door of college rooms; to “sport one’s OAK,” to be “not at home” to visitors. _See_ SPORT.—_University._ [Illustration: A “Sporting Door,” or “Oak.”]
Source: The Slang Dictionary, 1864

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