Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Beech

Beech (bēch), n.; pl. Beeches. [OE. beche, AS. bēce; akin to D. beuk, OHG. buocha, G. buche, Icel. beyki, Dan. bög, Sw. bok, Russ. buk, L. fagus, Gr. φηγός oak, φαγεῖν to eat, Skr. bhaksh; the tree being named originally from the esculent fruit. See Book, and cf. 7th Buck, Buckwheat.] (Bot.) A tree of the genus Fagus.

☞ It grows to a large size, having a smooth bark and thick foliage, and bears an edible triangular nut, of which swine are fond. The Fagus sylvatica is the European species, and the F. ferruginea that of America.

Beech drops (Bot.), a parasitic plant which grows on the roots of beeches (Epiphegus Americana). — Beech marten (Zoöl.), the stone marten of Europe (Mustela foina). — Beech mast, the nuts of the beech, esp. as they lie under the trees, in autumn. — Beech oil, oil expressed from the mast or nuts of the beech tree. — Cooper beech, a variety of the European beech with copper-colored, shining leaves.

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 “?”.