BEECH

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does beech mean? 

• BEECH (noun)
  The noun BEECH has 2 senses:

1. any of several large deciduous trees with rounded spreading crowns and smooth grey bark and small sweet edible triangular nuts enclosed in burs; north temperate regions

2. wood of any of various beech trees; used for flooring and containers and plywood and tool handles

  Familiarity information: BEECH used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• BEECH (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Any of several large deciduous trees with rounded spreading crowns and smooth grey bark and small sweet edible triangular nuts enclosed in burs; north temperate regions

Classified under:

Nouns denoting plants

Synonyms:

beech; beech tree

Hypernyms ("beech" is a kind of...):

tree (a tall perennial woody plant having a main trunk and branches forming a distinct elevated crown; includes both gymnosperms and angiosperms)

Meronyms (parts of "beech"):

beechnut (small sweet triangular nut of any of various beech trees)

Meronyms (substance of "beech"):

beech; beechwood (wood of any of various beech trees; used for flooring and containers and plywood and tool handles)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "beech"):

common beech; European beech; Fagus sylvatica (large European beech with minutely-toothed leaves; widely planted as an ornamental in North America)

copper beech; Fagus purpurea; Fagus sylvatica atropunicea; Fagus sylvatica purpurea; purple beech (variety of European beech with shining purple or copper-colored leaves)

American beech; Fagus americana; Fagus grandifolia; red beech; white beech (North American forest tree with light green leaves and edible nuts)

Fagus pendula; Fagus sylvatica pendula; weeping beech (variety of European beech with pendulous limbs)

Japanese beech (a beech native to Japan having soft light yellowish-brown wood)

Holonyms ("beech" is a member of...):

Fagus; genus Fagus (beeches)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Wood of any of various beech trees; used for flooring and containers and plywood and tool handles

Classified under:

Nouns denoting plants

Synonyms:

beech; beechwood

Hypernyms ("beech" is a kind of...):

wood (the hard fibrous lignified substance under the bark of trees)

Holonyms ("beech" is a substance of...):

beech; beech tree (any of several large deciduous trees with rounded spreading crowns and smooth grey bark and small sweet edible triangular nuts enclosed in burs; north temperate regions)

 Context examples 

Overhunting leads to the extinction of a dominant tree species, Miliusa horsfieldii, or the Miliusa beech, with likely cascading effects on other forest biota.

(Overhunting of large animals has catastrophic effects on trees, NSF)

No old ones, but plenty of beeches.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

And thus was solved the mystery of the sinister house with the copper beeches in front of the door.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Under the long green-paved avenues of gnarled oaks and of lichened beeches the white-robed brothers gathered to the sound.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The beech, the oak, and even the birch were to be found among the tangle of trees which girt us in.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

No nook in the grounds more sheltered and more Eden-like; it was full of trees, it bloomed with flowers: a very high wall shut it out from the court, on one side; on the other, a beech avenue screened it from the lawn.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

As the evening fell it began to get very cold, and the growing twilight seemed to merge into one dark mistiness the gloom of the trees, oak, beech, and pine, though in the valleys which ran deep between the spurs of the hills, as we ascended through the Pass, the dark firs stood out here and there against the background of late-lying snow.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

A considerable flight of steps landed them in the wilderness, which was a planted wood of about two acres, and though chiefly of larch and laurel, and beech cut down, and though laid out with too much regularity, was darkness and shade, and natural beauty, compared with the bowling-green and the terrace.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

“It passed by the blighted beech there,” said Alleyne, pointing, “and the hounds were hard at its heels.”

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

A clump of copper beeches immediately in front of the hall door has given its name to the place.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)