Definitions

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

  • noun Any of various trees or shrubs of the genus Cornus, having flowers in clusters and hard dense wood, and often cultivated as ornamentals.
  • noun A dogwood (Cornus florida) of eastern North America, having small greenish flowers surrounded by four large, showy white or pink bracts that resemble petals.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A tree of the genus Cornus; the cornel; especially, in Europe, the wild or male cornel, C. sanguinea. Also called dogwood-tree.
  • noun The wood of trees of the genus Cornus.
  • noun Any cornel-like shrub so called, as in England the Euonymus Europœus.
  • noun Pomaderris apetala, a small rhamnaceous tree of Tasmania, yielding a beautiful satiny wood suitable for carving and turning. See Pomaderris.
  • noun The poison sumac, Rhus Vernix.
  • noun The hop-tree, Ptelea trifoliata.
  • noun Same as Jamaica *dogwood.

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

  • noun (Bot.) The Cornus, a genus of large shrubs or small trees, the wood of which is exceedingly hard, and serviceable for many purposes.
  • noun A papilionaceous tree (Piscidia erythrina) growing in Jamaica. It has narcotic properties; -- called also Jamaica dogwood.

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

  • noun Any of various small trees of the genus Cornus, especially the wild cornel and the flowering cornel
  • noun The wood of such trees and shrubs.
  • noun A wood or tree similar to this genus, used in different parts of the world.

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

  • noun a tree of shrub of the genus Cornus often having showy bracts resembling flowers
  • noun hard tough wood of any dogwood of the genus Cornus; resembles boxwood

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From dag, a sharp object, + wood.

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Examples

  • In fact, the dogwood is a poignant reminder of the hundred-year gap between the first and second incarnations of this garden.

    A Brand-New Olmsted 2001

  • In fact, the dogwood is a poignant reminder of the hundred-year gap between the first and second incarnations of this garden.

    A Brand-New Olmsted 2001

  • The man sitting alone in the shade of a small dogwood is equally unaware.

    CLOUD DANCING • by J. Thomas Arant 2009

  • Our dogwood is filled with white blossoms though, and I know the geese will be laying eggs.

    Sprung! 2008

  • Actually, I thought it was a dogwood from the flowers, but only recalled seeing them before some 30 yrs ago, while growing up here in the Pacific Northwest.

    Dogwood Fruit aka TBTAM 2007

  • There are stately pine forests extending along the centre of the island; but the most beautiful of its trees are what are commonly called dogwood, the laurel, and a delicate species of the white oak.

    North Carolina and its Resources. North Carolina. Board of Agriculture. 1896

  • The berry of the round-leaved dogwood is of a very delicate blue.

    Rural Hours 1887

  • Carolyn Gail, thanks, I also thought the dogwood was our tree, but was corrected and now know it is the tulip poplar.

    Pink Dogwood Winter « Fairegarden 2008

  • The dogwood is a seedling from our first Tennessee house, one of several herethat are now flowering size.

    Enigmatic Prose « Fairegarden 2008

  • When "the leaf of the dogwood is the size of a squirrel's ear," it is planting time.

    Stories the Iroquois Tell Their Children Mabel Powers

Comments

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  • Arf, arf, Stephen says every time he passes one. (sorry)

    July 12, 2007

  • Tree with good bark =-/

    December 31, 2023