birch

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun Any of various deciduous trees or shrubs of the genus Betula, native to the Northern Hemisphere and having unisexual flowers in catkins, alternate, simple, toothed leaves, and bark that often peels in thin papery layers.
• noun The hard, close-grained wood of any of these trees, used especially in furniture, interior finishes, and plywood.
• noun A rod from a birch, used to administer a whipping.
• transitive verb To whip with or as if with a birch.

from The Century Dictionary.

• To beat or punish with a birch rod; flog.
• noun A tree or shrub belonging to the genus Betula (which see).
• noun A birch rod, or a number of birch-twigs bound together, sometimes used for punishing children.
• noun A birch-bark canoe.
• noun In New Zealand, a name of any one of several species of Nothofagus.
• noun Same as white birch .
• noun Same as cañon- birch.
• noun The Atlantic coast birch, B. populifolia.
• noun The paper-or canoe-birch, B. papyrifera.
• noun Nothofagus Solandri, a beautiful evergreen tree 100 feet high: so called from the color of the bark.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• noun A tree of several species, constituting the genus Betula; as, the white or common birch (Betula alba) (also called silver birch and lady birch); the dwarf birch (Betula glandulosa); the paper or canoe birch (Betula papyracea); the yellow birch (Betula lutea); the black or cherry birch (Betula lenta).
• noun The wood or timber of the birch.
• noun A birch twig or birch twigs, used for flogging.
• noun A birch-bark canoe.
• noun a species (Bursera gummifera) of turpentine tree.
• noun (Zoöl.) See Ruffed grouse.
• noun wine made of the spring sap of the birch.
• noun An oil prepared from the black birch (Betula lenta), said to be identical with the oil of wintergreen, for which it is largely sold.
• adjective Of or pertaining to the birch; birchen.
• transitive verb To whip with a birch rod or twig; to flog.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun any of various trees of the genus Betula, native to countries in the northern hemisphere.
• noun a hard wood taken from the birch tree, typically used to make furniture.
• noun a stick, rod or bundle of twigs made from birch wood, used for punishment.
• verb to punish with a stick, bundle of twigs, or rod made of birch wood.
• verb to punish as though one were using a stick, bundle of twigs, or rod made of birch wood.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun a switch consisting of a twig or a bundle of twigs from a birch tree; used to hit people as punishment
• adjective consisting of or made of wood of the birch tree
• noun hard close-grained wood of any of various birch trees; used especially in furniture and interior finishes and plywood
• verb whip with a birch twig
• noun any betulaceous tree or shrub of the genus Betula having a thin peeling bark