Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Birch

Birch (bẽrch), n.; pl. Birches (-ĕz). [OE. birche, birk, AS. birce, beorc; akin to Icel. björk, Sw. björk, Dan. birk, D. berk, OHG. piricha, MHG. birche, birke, G. birke, Russ. bereza, Pol. brzoza, Serv. breza, Skr. bhūrja. √254. Cf. 1st Birk.] 1. A tree of several species, constituting the genus Betula; as, the white or common birch (B. alba) (also called silver birch and lady birch); the dwarf birch (B. glandulosa); the paper or canoe birch (B. papyracea); the yellow birch (B. lutea); the black or cherry birch (B. lenta).

2. The wood or timber of the birch.

3. A birch twig or birch twigs, used for flogging.

☞ The twigs of the common European birch (B. alba), being tough and slender, were formerly much used for rods in schools. They were also made into brooms.

The threatening twigs of birch. Shak.

4. A birch-bark canoe.

Birch of Jamaica, a species (Bursera gummifera) of turpentine tree. — Birch partridge. (Zoöl.) See Ruffed grouse. — Birch wine, wine made of the spring sap of the birch. — Oil of birch. (a) An oil obtained from the bark of the common European birch (Betula alba), and used in the preparation of genuine (and sometimes of the imitation) Russia leather, to which it gives its peculiar odor. (b) An oil prepared from the black birch (B. lenta), said to be identical with the oil of wintergreen, for which it is largely sold.

Birch, a. Of or pertaining to the birch; birchen.

Birch, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Birched (bẽrcht); p. pr. & vb. n. Birching.] To whip with a birch rod or twig; to flog.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.