Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Any of various shrubs or small trees of the genus Corylus that bear edible nuts enclosed in a leafy husk, especially the American species C. americana or the widely cultivated Eurasian species C. avellana.
- noun A light brown or yellowish brown.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun The wood of the sweet-gum, Liquidambar Styraciflua: a common use of the word among lumbermen and builders of the eastern United States.
- noun In Australia, either of two small evergreen trees of the buckthorn family, Pomaderris apetala and P. lanigera, yielding excellent wood. See
bastard dogwood - noun cooper's-wood, and Pomaderris.
- noun A soil consisting of a mixture of gravel or sand, clay, and loam.
- noun A plant of the genus Corylus, shrubs or small trees belonging to the natural order Cupuliferæ, or oak family, and giving name to the tribe Coryleæ, to which the hornbeams also belong.
- Made of or belonging to the hazel.
- Of a light-brown color, like the hazelnut.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Consisting of hazels, or of the wood of the hazel; pertaining to, or derived from, the hazel.
- adjective Of a light brown color, like the hazelnut.
- noun (Bot.) A shrub or small tree of the genus Corylus, as the
Corylus avellana , bearing a nut containing a kernel of a mild, farinaceous taste; the filbert. The American species areCorylus Americana , which produces the common hazelnut, andCorylus rostrata . Seefilbert . - noun A miner's name for freestone.
- noun soil suitable for the hazel; a fertile loam.
- noun (Zoöl.) a European grouse (
Bonasa betulina ), allied to the American ruffed grouse. - noun a kind of grub hoe.
- noun See
Witch-hazel , andHamamelis .
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A
tree orshrub of the genusCorylus , bearing edible nuts calledhazelnuts orfilberts . - noun The nut of the hazel tree.
- noun The wood of a hazelnut tree.
- noun A greenish-brown colour, the colour of a ripe hazelnut.
- adjective Of a
greenish -brown colour . (often used to refer to eye colour)
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a shade of brown that is yellowish or reddish; it is a greenish shade of brown when used to describe the color of someone's eyes
- adjective of a light brown or yellowish brown color
- noun the fine-grained wood of a hazelnut tree (genus Corylus) and the hazel tree (Australian genus Pomaderris)
- noun Australian tree grown especially for ornament and its fine-grained wood and bearing edible nuts
- noun any of several shrubs or small trees of the genus Corylus bearing edible nuts enclosed in a leafy husk
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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He was to take the timber at a valuation, and it is a sufficient proof of his ignorance of these matters, that he really did not know the difference between a hazel bush and an oak tree; for, although he was a very clever and an ingenious man in his way, yet he actually applied to me, to know how they would measure such _small timber_ as that which he pointed out to me, which was nothing more than a _hazel bush!
Memoirs of Henry Hunt, Esq. — Volume 2 Henry Hunt 1804
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The Americans generally accept the use of the term hazel to apply to both the American and European species.
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He was skilled in the lore of plants and herbs, and by means of a slender hazel from the woods could tell where crystal waters flowed deep in the bowels of the earth.
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The wych-hazel is in bloom; brown nuts and yellow flowers on the same twig.
Rural Hours 1887
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We look a lot alike: same medium build, dark hair, and sad excuse for an eye color that Mom called hazel.
Freefall Mindi Scott 2010
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Most of the DIY recipes I find uses witch hazel, which is apparently a big no-no.
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For daily use, the hazel is a bit harsh and could strip your skin.
Stepford Preacher PeaceBang 2006
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Our next operation in the hazel will be the pruning.
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This question of the blight on the hazel is a most important one for the northern nut growers.
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By 1945 the number of these plants were in the neighborhood of 2000 and by 1952 considerable knowledge had been gained as to the hardiness, blight resistance to the common hazel blight (known scientifically as cryptosporella anomala), freedom from the curculio of the hazelnuts (commonly known as the hazel weevil) and resistance to other insect pests.
Growing Nuts in the North A Personal Story of the Author's Experience of 33 Years with Nut Culture in Minnesota and Wisconsin Carl Weschcke 1933
treeseed commented on the word hazel
Hooray for Hazel is a song by Tommy Roe that went to #6 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1966.
February 9, 2008
john commented on the word hazel
A witch who first appeared in a 1954 bugs bunny episode, and a retired hurricane name from 1954.
December 2, 2008
sionnach commented on the word hazel
Also a nut.
December 2, 2008
sarra commented on the word hazel
and a brown-amber-greenish eye colour
December 2, 2008
corylusavellana commented on the word hazel
See my nameline for the Latin name of Common Hazel...
December 22, 2008