Definitions

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

  • noun A small deciduous European tree (Sorbus aucuparia) in the rose family, having pinnately compound leaves, corymbs of white flowers, and orange-red berries.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The rowan-tree.
  • noun The fruit or berry of the rowan-tree.

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

  • noun Rowan tree.
  • noun a berry of the rowan tree.

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

  • noun Sorbus aucuparia, the European rowan.
  • noun Any of various small deciduous trees or shrubs of genus Sorbus, belonging to the rose family, with pinnate leaves, corymbs of white flowers, and usually with orange-red berries.

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

  • noun Eurasian tree with orange-red berrylike fruits

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Of Scandinavian origin; see reudh- in Indo-European roots.]

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Examples

  • Apparently, 'rowan' is simply a somewhat dated synonym of 'mountain ash'.

    languagehat.com: SEAMUS HEANEY. 2004

  • She started to reach for it and thought better of it, pulling one of her Lucite "rowan" stakes from its sheath on her boot to poke the dead monster's chest with.

    The Warslayer Edghill, Rosemary 2002

  • In Sweden and Norway, also, magical properties are ascribed to a "flying-rowan" (flögrönn), that is to a rowan which is found growing not in the ordinary fashion on the ground but on another tree, or on a roof, or in a cleft of the rock, where it has sprouted from seed scattered by birds.

    The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion 1922

  • In Sweden and Norway, also, magical properties are ascribed to a “flying-rowan” (flögrönn), that is to a rowan which is found growing not in the ordinary fashion on the ground but on another tree, or on a roof, or in a cleft of the rock, where it has sprouted from seed scattered by birds.

    Chapter 68. The Golden Bough 1922

  • Ungrazed heather does eventually become overgrown and 'senile', but this leads to the opening up of patches of ground that become colonised by other plant and then tree species, eventually leading to more natural communities, such as rowan, ash and acid oak woodlands.

    Life and style | guardian.co.uk 2008

  • (_flögrönn_), that is to a rowan which is found growing not in the ordinary fashion on the ground but on another tree, or on a roof, or in a cleft of the rock, where it has sprouted from seed scattered by birds.

    The Golden Bough James George Frazer 1897

  • "rowan" stakes sheathed on the outsides of her thigh-high black leather boots.

    The Warslayer Edghill, Rosemary 2002

  • “flying-rowan” (flögrönn), that is to a rowan which is found growing not in the ordinary fashion on the ground but on another tree, or on a roof, or in a cleft of the rock, where it has sprouted from seed scattered by birds.

    The Golden Bough : a study of magic and religion 1583

  • The berriers usually went for yew and rowan first.

    Country diary: Wenlock Edge 2011

  • The first of 94,000 sessile oak, ash, hazel and rowan trees, which will unite the remnants of ancient woodland on the site, have been planted by volunteers and schoolchildren.

    Country diary: Low Burnhall, Durham 2011

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