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''birch'' ▫ᴱᴺ Entries

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''birch'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260313192153-00-⌔

birch - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

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Noun

birch (countable and uncountable, plural birches)

  • Any of various trees of the genus Betula, native to countries in the Northern Hemisphere.
  • A hard wood taken from the birch tree, typically used to make furniture.
  • A stick, rod or bundle of twigs made from birch wood, used for punishment.
    • ✤ Synonyms: makepeace, switch
  • A birch-bark canoe.

Verb

birch (third-person singular simple present birches, present participle birching, simple past and past participle birched)

  • (transitive) To punish with a stick, bundle of twigs, or rod made of birch wood.
  • (transitive) To punish as though one were using a stick, bundle of twigs, or rod made of birch wood.
    • ✤ That the morrow would see us arraigned ‘fore the Head
      And probably birched with a willow      1
    • ✤ […] and was tied to a tree and soundly birched with a bundle of furze2
    • ✤ The Mexica were always washing, in water obtained through the aqueduct, or in the lake, and would often go to the popular baths in the numerous stone steam houses (where birching, with grasses, or massage was also available).3

Etymology

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From Middle English birche, birk, from Old English birċe, bierċe, from Proto-West Germanic ﹡birkijā, from Proto-Germanic ﹡birkijǭ, from Proto-Indo-European ﹡bʰerHǵos.

Pronunciation

  • (Received Pronunciation) enPR: bû(r)ch, IPA: /bɜːtʃ/
  • (US) enPR: bû(r)ch, IPA: /bɝt͡ʃ/
  • Audio (US): 🔊
  • Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)tʃ

Printed 2026-06-28.

(echo:: @ ⌗)

Footnotes

  1. 1902, M. M. Read, “The Midnight Feast”, in The Boy’s Own Annual, volume 25, page 63: ↩

  2. 2012, Charles J. Esdaile, Outpost of Empire: The Napoleonic Occupation of Andalucia, 1810–1812, page 319: ↩

  3. 2013, Hugh Thomas, Conquest: Cortes, Montezuma, and the Fall of Old Mexico, page 292: ↩

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