Oak

• POS: Noun

CIDE DICTIONARY

Oak, n. [OE. oke, ok, ak, AS. āc; akin to D. eik, G. eiche, OHG. eih, Icel. eik, Sw. ek, Dan. eeg.].

•  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.  [1913 Webster]
•  The strong wood or timber of the oak.  [1913 Webster]

  " Among plants called oak, but not of the genus Quercus, are: African oak, a valuable timber tree (Oldfieldia Africana). -- Australian oak or She oak, any tree of the genus Casuarina (see Casuarina). -- Indian oak, the teak tree (see Teak). -- Jerusalem oak. See under Jerusalem. -- New Zealand oak, a sapindaceous tree (Alectryon excelsum). -- Poison oak, a shrub once not distinguished from poison ivy, but now restricted to Rhus toxicodendron or Rhus diversiloba. -- Silky oak or Silk-bark oak, an Australian tree (Grevillea robusta)."  [1913 Webster]

Green oak, oak wood colored green by the growth of the mycelium of certain fungi. -- Oak apple, a large, smooth, round gall produced on the leaves of the American red oak by a gallfly (Cynips confluens). It is green and pulpy when young. -- Oak beauty (Zoöl.), a British geometrid moth (Biston prodromaria) whose larva feeds on the oak. -- Oak gall, a gall found on the oak. See 2d Gall. -- Oak leather (Bot.), the mycelium of a fungus which forms leatherlike patches in the fissures of oak wood. -- Oak pruner. (Zoöl.) See Pruner, the insect. -- Oak spangle, a kind of gall produced on the oak by the insect Diplolepis lenticularis. -- Oak wart, a wartlike gall on the twigs of an oak. -- The Oaks, one of the three great annual English horse races (the Derby and St. Leger being the others). It was instituted in 1779 by the Earl of Derby, and so called from his estate. -- To sport one's oak, to be “not at home to visitors,” signified by closing the outer (oaken) door of one's rooms. [Cant, Eng. Univ.]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

Oak, n.
1 any tree or shrub of the genus Quercus usu. having lobed leaves and bearing acorns.
2 the durable wood of this tree, used esp. for furniture and in building.
3 (attrib.) made of oak (oak table).
4 a heavy outer door of a set of university college rooms.
5 (the Oaks) (treated as sing.) an annual race at Epsom for three-year-old fillies (from the name of a nearby estate).

Idiom

oak-apple (or -gall) an apple-like gall containing larvae of certain wasps, found on oak trees.

Derivative

oaken adj.

Etymology

OE ac f. Gmc

THESAURUS

Oak

Gibraltar, acacia, adamant, ailanthus, alder, alligator pear, allspice, almond, apple, apricot, ash, aspen, avocado, balsa, balsam, banyan, bass, basswood, bay, bayberry, beech, beechwood, betel palm, birch, bone, brick, buckeye, burl, butternut, buttonwood, cacao, candleberry, cashew, cassia, catalpa, cement, cherry, chestnut, chinquapin, cinnamon, citron, clove, coconut, concrete, cork, cork oak, cypress, diamond, dogwood, ebony, elder, elm, eucalyptus, fig, fir, flint, frankincense, granite, grapefruit, guava, gum, gumwood, hawthorn, hazel, heart of oak, hemlock, henna, hickory, holly, hop tree, horse, horse chestnut, iron, ironwood, juniper, kumquat, laburnum, lancewood, larch, laurel, lemon, lime, linden, lion, litchi, litchi nut, locust, logwood, magnolia, mahogany, mango, mangrove, maple, marble, medlar, mountain ash, mulberry, nails, nutmeg, olive, orange, ox, palm, papaw, papaya, peach, pear, pecan, persimmon, pine, pistachio, plane, plum, pomegranate, poplar, quince, raffia palm, rain tree, redwood, rock, sandalwood, sassafras, senna, sequoia, spruce, steel, stone, sumac, sycamore, tangerine, teak, tulip tree, walnut, willow, witch hazel, yew

ROGET THESAURUS

Oak

Strength

N strength, power, energy, vigor, force, main force, physical force, brute force, spring, elasticity, tone, tension, tonicity, stoutness, lustihood, stamina, nerve, muscle, sinew, thews and sinews, physique, pith, pithiness, virtility, vitality, athletics, athleticism, gymnastics, feats of strength, adamant, steel, iron, oak, heart of oak, iron grip, grit, bone, athlete, gymnast, acrobat, superman, Atlas, Hercules, Antaeus, Samson, Cyclops, Goliath, tower of strength, giant refreshed, strengthening, invigoration, refreshment, refocillation, dynamics, statics, strong, mighty, vigorous, forcible, hard, adamantine, stout, robust, sturdy, hardy, powerful, potent, puissant, valid, resistless, irresistible, invincible, proof against, impregnable, unconquerable, indomitable, dominating, inextinguishable, unquenchable, incontestable, more than a match for, overpowering, overwhelming, all powerful, all sufficient, sovereign, able-bodied, athletic, Herculean, Cyclopean, Atlantean, muscular, brawny, wiry, well-knit, broad-shouldered, sinewy, strapping, stalwart, gigantic, manly, man-like, manful, masculine, male, virile, unweakened, unallayed, unwithered, unshaken, unworn, unexhausted, in full force, in full swing, in the plenitude of power, stubborn, thick-ribbed, made of iron, deep-rooted, strong as a lion, strong as a horse, strong as an ox, strong as brandy, sound as a roach, in fine feather, in high feather, built like a brick shithouse, like a giant refreshed, strongly, by force, by main force, our withers are unwrung, Blut und Eisen, coelitus mihi vires, du fort au diable, en habiles gens, ex vi termini, flecti non frangi, he that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves an, inflexible in faith invincible in arms.