Word Finder - oaks

definition

A deciduous tree with distinctive deeply lobed leaves, acorns, and notably strong wood, typically of England and northeastern North America, included in genus Quercus.

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The wood of the oak.

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A rich brown colour, like that of oak wood.

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Any tree of the genus Quercus, in family Fagaceae.

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Any tree of other genera and species of trees resembling typical oaks of genus Quercus in some ways.

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The outer (lockable) door of a set of rooms in a college or similar institution. (Often in the phrase "to sport one's oak").

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The flavor of oak.

The oaks are widely distributed over the temperate parts of Europe, Asia, North Africa and North America.

Robur, one of the most valued of the genus, and the most celebrated in history and myth, may be taken as a type of the oaks with sinuated leaves.

Many of the ancient oaks that remain in England may date from Saxon times, and some perhaps from an earlier period; the growth of trees after the trunk has become hollow is extremely slow, and the age of such venerable giants only matter of vague surmise.

The younger oaks are employed by the carpenter, wheelwright, wagon-builder and for innumerable purposes by the country artisan.

The most durable of fences are those formed of small oaks, split lengthwise by the wedge into thin boards.

The distance between the oaks depends upon the growth intended before thinning the young wood; usually they are placed from 8 to 12 ft.

Where artificial copsewood is the object, hazel, hornbeam and other bushes may be planted between the oaks; but, when large timber is required, the trees are best without undergrowth.

According to Neubauer, the bark of young oaks contains from 7 to Io% of this principle; in old trees the proportion is much less.

On rich loams and the alluvial soils of river-valleys, when well drained, the tree attains a large size, often rivalling the giant oaks of Europe; trunks of 3 or 4 ft.

Both these oaks grow well in British plantations, where their bright autumn foliage, though seldom so decided in tint as in their native woods, gives them a certain picturesque value.

The chestnut oaks of America represent a section distinguished by the merely serrated leaves, with parallel veins running to the end of the serratures.

The live oak is one of the most valuable timber trees of the genus, the wood being extremely durable, both exposed to air and under water; heavy and closegrained, it is perhaps the best of the American oaks for shipbuilding, and is invaluable for water-wheels and mill-work.

In America several oaks exist with narrow lanceolate leaves, from which characteristic they are known as "willow oaks."

Some oaks are of indirect importance from products formed by their insect enemies.

High districts covered with oaks and chestnuts succeed to this almost tropical vegetation; a little higher up and we reach the elevated regions of the Pollino and the Sila, covered with firs and pines, and affording rich pastures even in the midst of summer, when heavy dews and light frosts succeed each other in July and August, and snow begins to appear at the end of September or early in October.

There is a small government house, standing in beautiful grounds, adjoining Albert Park, with plantations of oaks and pines.

There were oaks, beeches (scarcely distinguishable from existing species), birches, planes and willows (one closely related to the living Salix candida), laurels, represented by Sassafras and Cinnamomum, magnolias and tulip trees (Liriodendron), myrtles, Liquidambar, Diospyros and ivy.

The Atlantic flora has also numerous oaks and maples, signalized by their autumnal coloration.

Evergreen oaks and Conifers form the forests.

In Malaya and eastward the forests are rich in arborescent figs, laurels, myrtles, nutmegs, oaks and bamboos.

Bengal has no Cycas, oaks or nutmegs.

The so-called oaks of Australia are Casuarma, which also occurs in New Caledonia, but is wanting in New Zealand.

The city's park system includes the Western Promenade, on Bramhall Hill; the Eastern Promenade, on Munjoy Hill; Fort Allen Park, at the south extremity of the latter promenade; Fort Sumner, another small park farther west, on the same hill; Lincoln Park, containing 2 acres of beautiful grounds near the centre of the city; Deering's Oaks (made famous by Longfellow), the principal park (50 acres) on the peninsula, with many fine old trees, pleasant drives, and an artificial pond used for boating; and Monument Square and Boothby Square.

The crater is densely overgrown with oaks and beeches which harbour wild boars and wolves.

He took part in the siege of Yorktown, the battle of Fair Oaks, the seven days' battle before Richmond, and the battles of Antietam, Fredericksburg, where he was wounded, and Chancellorsville, where his brigade was reduced in numbers to less than a regiment, and General Meagher resigned his commission.

Farther south is the forest of Darnaway, famous for its oaks, in which stands the earl of Moray's mansion of Darnaway Castle.

The beautiful live oaks and magnolias grow only in the south of the state; the holly in the lowlands; and the finest species of pecan, in the Delta.

In the Piedmont Plateau Region oaks, hickories and elms are the most common.

The chief trees belong to the orders of Terebinthaceae, Sapindaceae, Meliaceae, Clusiaceae, Dipterocarpaceae, Ternstroemiaceae, Leguminosae, laurels, oaks and figs, with Dilleniaceae, Sapotaceae and nutmegs.

A distinct connexion between the flora of the peninsula and Ceylon and that of eastern tropical Africa is observable not only in the great similarity of many of the more truly tropical forms, and the identity of families and genera found in both regions, but in a more remarkable manner in the likeness of the mountain flora of this part of Africa to that of the peninsula, in which several species occur believed to be identical with Abyssinian forms. This connexion is further established by the absence from both areas of oaks, conifers and cycads, which, as regards the first two families, is a remarkable feature of the flora of the peninsula and Ceylon, as the mountains rise to elevations in which both of them are abundant to the north and east.

The site is now covered with valonia oaks, and has been much plundered, e.g by Mahommed IV., who took columns to adorn his new Valideh mosque in Stambul; but the circuit of the old walls can be traced, and in several places they are fairly well preserved.

Some of the woods are noted for their fine oaks, those at Kedleston, 3 m.

As a picturesque tree, for park and ornamental plantation, it is among the best of the conifers, its colour and form contrasting yet harmonizing with the olive green and rounded outline of oaks and beeches, or with the red trunk and glaucous foliage of the pine.

The south-western shore is generally low, with sand hills covered with shrivelled pines and bur oaks.

Monroe lies in a level valley, and has broad streets shaded by live oaks.

The oaks for which the country was once famous still distinguish it in places.

On drier and higher soils are the persimmon, sassafras, red maple, elm, black haw, hawthorn, various oaks (in all 10 species occur), hickories and splendid forests of longleaf and loblolly yellow pine.

For building and miscellaneous purposes, in addition to the rare woods above named, there are cedars (used in great quantities for cigar boxes); the pine, found only in the W., where it gives its name to the Isle of Pines and the province of Pinar del Rio; various palms; oaks of varying hardness and colour, &c. The number of alimentary plants is extremely great.

Pine forests surround the town, and oaks and elms of more than a century's growth shade its streets.

Both these series contain numerous plant remains, evergreen oaks, magnolias, aralias, &c., and seams of lignite (coal), which is burnt; but in neither occur the marine beds of the United States.

The forest scenery much resembles that of England, with fine oaks and greensward.

A considerable quantity of timber is grown on the high lands, and the rich valley pastures support large herds of cattle, while the abundance of oaks and chestnuts favours the rearing of swine.

Of the Eliot oaks, made famous by Longfellow's sonnet, one was cut down in 1842, the other still stands.

Oaks and wild prunus, wild vines and sumachs, various kinds of maple, the dOdan (Enkianthus Japonicus Hook.)a wonderful bush which in autumn develops a hue of ruddy redbirches and other trees, all add multitudinous colors to the brilliancy of a spectacle which is further enriched by masses of feathery bamboo.

He commanded in the battle of Fair Oaks (May 31, 1862), and was so severely wounded as to be incapacitated for several months.

Firs and pines cover the mountain heights; and below these, but still at an elevation of eight or nine thousand feet, is a zone of vegetation, consisting principally of oaks and rhododendrons.

In 1662, as appears by a map still extant, there were i 50 houses within the wall, forming five streets and as many lanes; and the upland districts around were one dense forest of giant oaks and sycamores, yielding an unfailing supply of timber to the woodmen of Carrickfergus.

Some of the mountains are almost entirely composed of naked calcareous rock, but most of them wereformerly covered to their summits with forests of oaks, chestnuts, or pine trees, now destroyed to provide fuel.

The name was first given in 1834 to a plant-louse which was observed to "dry up the leaves" of oaks in Provence.

There have been several instances of this being done in the fiery pits in the Barnsley district, notably at the great explosion at the Oaks colliery in 1866, when 360 lives were lost.