butternut tree
- noun
- /ˈbʌtərnʌt tri/
- US
:
árbol de butternut
- The craftsman used the light-brown wood from the butternut tree to create beautiful furniture.
Examples
-
Seen in this light, potshotting through the leaves of the butternut tree, Stella bobs her head and bounces her curlicue to the jumps of a bigger girl rope-whapping the macadam.
Fiction book (1992) -
At the other end of the geographic scale, a single venerable butternut tree in the Hudson River city of Poughkeepsie, New York, inspired a local citizen crusade to save it from destruction at the hands of a developer.
Academic text (2004) -
In the butternut tree hangs a blade of rising moon.
Fiction book (1992) -
I feign nonchalance, hobble along the fence to behind this towering butternut tree imprisoned by sidewalk and street and block, yet another holdout among these cars and buses.
Fiction book (1992) -
Tucker and Liddil and one or both of those Ford sons-of-bitches up the bank to high-stepping their horses over the tracks above the cross ties taken up, up the rockbed side of the cut into the shadowed cover of the pine stand and lone butternut tree.
Fiction book (1992) -
The children gathered under the butternut tree to enjoy the shade on a hot summer day.
-
She harvested the rich, buttery nuts from the butternut tree that grew in her backyard.
Synonyms
1
6.0
A North American tree that produces edible nuts and useful wood
A North American tree with light brown wood, edible nuts, and shells used for dye
A North American walnut tree with light brown wood, edible nuts, and bark used to make light brown dye
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a tree that produces butternuts' is directly and transparently derived from combining 'butternut' (the nut/tree) with 'tree' (a tall perennial plant). This is a straightforward noun–noun compound following common compounding patterns, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents can infer the MWE meaning.
Etymology
Butternut tree comes from the tree's oily, rich nut that people thought tasted a little like butter, and from its light-brown wood that was used for dye. That's why the name now means the North American tree known for its buttery-tasting nuts and pale brown wood.