noun
- a member, advocate, or follower of the John Birch Society and its principles.
noun
- any tree or shrub of the genus Betula, comprising species with a smooth, laminated outer bark and close-grained wood.Compare birch family.
- the wood itself.
- a birch rod, or a bundle of birch twigs, used especially for whipping.
adjective
verb (used with object)
- to beat or punish with or as if with a birch: The young ruffians were birched soundly by their teacher.
noun
- a member or supporter of the John Birch Society
noun
- any betulaceous tree or shrub of the genus Betula, having thin peeling barkSee also silver birch
- the hard close-grained wood of any of these trees
- the birch a bundle of birch twigs or a birch rod used, esp formerly, for flogging offenders
adjective
- of, relating to, or belonging to the birch
- consisting or made of birch
verb
- (tr) to flog with a birch
1961, member of the U.S. anti-communist John Birch Society, founded 1958.
Old English berc, beorc (also the name of the rune for “b”), from Proto-Germanic *berkjon (cf. Old Saxon birka, Old Norse börk, Danish birk, Swedish björk, Middle Dutch berke, Dutch berk, Old High German birihha, German Birke), from PIE *bhergo (cf. Ossetian barz, Old Church Slavonic breza, Russian bereza, Lithuanian beržas, Sanskrit bhurjah, Latin farnus, fraxinus “mountain ash”), from root *bhereg- “to gleam, white.” Meaning “bunch of birch twigs used for flogging” (1640s) led to verb meaning “to flog” (1830). Related: Birched; birching. Birch beer is by 1827, American English.