grove
/ɡɹoʊv/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 3.94 in modern English
9
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
1
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A small forest with minimal undergrowth.
noun
An orchard of fruit trees.
noun
verb
To cultivate with periodic harvesting that also serves to create order (gaps and lines of trees) to facilitate further harvesting.
Example Sentences
- "Religious sodomy was practised by male prostitutes in the Hebrew temple groves, which was one of the abominations of Israel that Josiah cleared away."
- "Near-synonym: woodland"
- "It is called "Orchard Lake," from the fact, that near the centre is an island embracing an area of about fifty acres of land, well groved with different kinds of shrubbery; and near the centre of this island stand a number of aged apple-trees, planted, perhaps, a century since by the hand of some Indian."
- "The trees and shrubs are not arranged after any particular system, but are scattered or groved together in various parts of the garden."
- "1984, Queensland Botany Bulletin, Issue 3, Department of Primary Industries, page 82, Virtually recognizable groving occurs in some A. aneura associations in the west. Further east some diffuse groving may occur, but is difficult to recognize without the benefit of aerial photographs."
- "In Herefordshire, especially on the northern and eastern sides, Oak timber abounds; and in many of the woods it is usual to have felling at periods varying from sixteen to twenty years; the straightest and handsomest are left for timber, or, as it is called, groved; and they are from time to time thinned, and a regular distance kept between them. The effect produced on these groved trees is, that from being exposed to air and sun, the rapidity of their growth is increased in bulk, height, and quality; and in sixty or eighty years they become valuable timber."
Etymology
From Middle English grove, grave, from Old English grāf, grāfa (“grove; copse”), from Proto-West Germanic *graib, *graibō (“branch, group of branches, thicket”), from Proto-Germanic *graibaz, *graibô (“branch, fork”). Related to Old English grǣf, grǣfe (“brushwood; thicket; copse”), Old English grǣfa (“thicket”), dialectal Norwegian greive (“ram with splayed horns”), dialectal Norwegian greivlar (“ramifications of an antler”), dialectal Norwegian grivla (“to branch, branch out”), Old Norse grein (“twig, branch, limb”). More at greave.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: grove, grāf, *graib, *graibaz, -
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ɡɹoʊv/
- British English: /ɡɹəʊv/
Subject
Wiktionary places this term in Places.