big tree
3
3.5
- noun
- Specialized
:
secuoya
- While I listened to the calls of exotic birds and admired the hordes of butterflies flitting among the branches of the big trees, I ignored the grinding of my stomach and awaited Wetherall.
- branches of a big tree
- see the big tree
- really big tree
Examples
-
He walked into the grove and laid his palm against the big tree's papery bark.
Fiction book (2001) -
This is just one big tree.
-
If somebody just cut off a few feet of that big tree... that little tree could grow up strong.
-
Amy, do you see the big tree outside?
Fiction book (1999) -
They all love that big tree, right?
-
The little saplings that her grandfather had planted were now big trees, and she had watched them grow.
Fiction book (1997) -
Those were big trees when Captain Kidd came ashore here.
Fiction book (1997) -
From here on out, my birthday's gonna be the day I found you picking pine nuts underneath that great big tree.
Fiction book (1999) -
It wasn't long before he found a big tree that suited his purpose perfectly.
Fiction book (2000) -
The giant sequoia is a big tree that can reach heights of over 300 feet.
Synonyms
2
7.8
A very large evergreen tree from California that grows to great heights
1
5.3
A very large evergreen tree with a very thick trunk that grows on the Sierra Nevada in California
An extremely tall evergreen tree from California's Sierra Nevada that is the largest living thing by volume
A very large evergreen tree in California that is the largest living plant by size
A very tall evergreen tree that grows in the Sierra Nevada in California and can live for thousands of years
A very tall tree that stays green and can live for thousands of years
How Tall
- Specialized
3
3.5
- Australian
∞
1.0
16
2.7
20
2.8
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase 'big tree' is compositionally clear — a B1 learner who knows 'big' and 'tree' will understand it means a large tree. However, the dictionary definition given refers to a specific botanical/cultural referent (giant sequoia / the largest living organism), which is encyclopedic and not predictable from the constituents alone. Because the general meaning is transparent but the precise specialized sense is not, this is best classified as semi-transparent.
Etymology
Big tree is a simple name from early visitors who saw trees so huge you could stand inside the trunk, so they called them big tree. So, Big tree now means those giant California sequoias, 'an extremely tall, giant tree'.