Dictionary

fruit-tree en · NOUN

Meanings

1. (alt-of, dated) Dated form of fruit tree.
   alt of fruit tree
   • Then comes a fine old castle, with its broad walls and square towers shooting up into the sky; then high banks of tall trees, with the verdant earth seen between; lower still, gardens filled with the luxuriant and varied greens of the artichoke, the pomadore, the finocchia, arched over with shrubs and fruit-trees, and topped by tall Oriental palms in full vigour and luxuriance. 1842, Edward Villiers Rippingille, “Il Monte di Fato (The Mountain of Fate): Wanderings of a Painter in Italy” in Bentley’s Miscellany (American edition, Joseph Mason), volume 9, ed. William Harrison Ainsworth, page 406
   • Pruning, for instance, or building bird-tables: useful volumes in simple language, usually with diagrams, guaranteed to prevent us from hacking our fruit-trees about until they produce great festoons of leaves but no fruit, […] 1984 December 29, Tony Brode, “Which is it, true or bluff?”, in Southern Evening Echo, city edition, 97th year, number 29631, Southampton, Hampshire, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 4, column 1:
   • All her little womanly ways, budding out of her like blossoms on a young fruit-tree, had their effect on him, and sometimes caused his very heart to tingle with the keenest thrills of pleasure. 1851 April 9, Nathaniel Hawthorne, “Clifford and Phœbe”, in The House of the Seven Gables, a Romance, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, →OCLC, page 154:
   • 1670, John Evelyn, Sylva, or, A Discourse of Forest-Trees to which is annexed Pomona, or, An appendix concerning Fruit-Trees in Relation to Cider, London: Jo. Martyn & Ja. Allestry, “Kalendarium Hortense,” p. 10, Prune Fruit-trees, and Vines as yet; For now is your Season to bind, plash, naile, and dresse, without danger of Frost: […]

Forms