bur oak

American

noun

an oak tree, Quercus macrocarpa, of eastern North America, having shiny, dark-green leaves, light-gray deeply ridged bark, and very large acorns with a fringed cup, yielding a hard, durable wood: the state tree of Illinois.

bur oak British

noun

an E North American oak, Quercus macrocarpa , having fringed acorn cups and durable timber

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of bur oak

An Americanism dating back to 1805–15

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Rowdy had something treed in a huge bur oak that was a solid mass of green.

From Literature

Van Pelt repeated the method on 11 more trees, including bur oak, scarlet oak and the pecan.

From Seattle Times

Each acorn was painted with colored bands to indicate its species: red oak, bur oak, black oak, white oak, swamp white oak, scarlet oak, pin oak, willow oak.

From New York Times

Adams pointed to an outbreak of blight among bur oaks across the Midwest.

From Washington Post

His ashes are buried under a bur oak she can see from the kitchen window.

From New York Times

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023