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Glite Dictionary
treed

treed

1 8.2
Unable to escape because others chased them into a high place
  • adjective
  • /triːd/
  • Jargon
translation icon : acornerado
  • They tried to frighten her with talk of grizzlies, but she just looked out the window at the low, treed terrain, the distant Denali barely visible behind clouds.

Examples

  • He knew now what a treed animal felt like, a coon or bobcat spitting down at hunters raising their guns...

    Fiction book (1992)

  • The cat was treed by the dog and couldn't escape its chasing barker.

  • Didn't have far to go, though, maybe two miles, and the bear was already treed.

    Fiction book (1990)

  • When the hounds chased the raccoon, it quickly became treed and had nowhere to go.

  • After being treed by the hunters, the fox stayed quietly in the branches of the tree.

Synonyms

up a tree
vstreed
  • Informal
2 8.6

To be in a difficult situation with no easy way out

is about being forced by pursuers into a high inescapable position
trapped
vstreed
4.4

Unable to escape from a dangerous place or situation, for example when surrounded by attackers

is caused by being driven upward and blocked by a pursuer
cornered
vstreed
4.5

In a place where you cannot escape and must face someone

involves being driven upward and left with no escape by pursuers

Surface Forms

treed positive

Morphology

treed = tree (transparent) = tree + ed

Formed from the verb 'tree' with the participial suffix '-ed', yielding the adjectival sense 'forced up into a tree', which is a direct derivation.

Etymology

The word treed comes from hunting, when dogs chased an animal until it was forced into a tree — 'up a tree'. So, to be treed is to be trapped with no easy way out, which is why we use it for people as well as animals.