a. A tree. Obsolete.

†b. transferred applied to objects made from trees or their branches, e.g. a ship (in Old English frequently), a spear, the Cross. (Cf. tree n. 3 – 6.) Obsolete.In modern archaic use associated with sense 7.

a. A collection of trees growing more or less thickly together (esp. naturally, as distinguished from a plantation), of considerable extent, usually larger than a grove or copse (but including these), and smaller than a forest; a piece of ground covered with trees, with or without undergrowth. †honey of the wood: = wood-honey n. at Compounds 2a.

b. Woods and Forests, more fully Woods, Forests, and Land Revenues, a department of the Civil Service (see quot. 1810; merged with the Forestry Commission in 1923).

†a. in a wood: in a difficulty, trouble, or perplexity; at a loss.

b. out of the wood (U.S. woods). (Cf. quot. 1664 at sense 4.)

c. to go to the woods: to lose social status, be banished from society. Also without verb.

d. man of the woods: = orangutan n.

e. a bird in the hand is better than two in the wood (and similar phrases; now usually with substitution of bush, bush n.¹ 1c): a smaller actual advantage is preferable to the mere chance of a larger one.

†f. to have an eye to the wood: to be on the look-out for some advantage.

g. not to see the wood (†see wood) for the trees (†for trees): to lose the view of the whole in the multitude of details.

h. more ways to the wood than one: different methods of attaining the same result (and similar phrases).

i. to be in the wood: to be a possible issue of a particular situation.

j. to have the wood on (a person) and variants: to have the upper hand, to have a hold on. Australian and New Zealand colloquial. Cf. to have the goods on at good adj., n., adv., and int. Phrases 7b.

a. The substance of which the roots, trunks, and branches of trees or shrubs consist; trunks or other parts of trees collectively (whether growing or cut down ready for use).Also with qualification, as brushwood n. 1, talwood n.; small wood, young wood.

b. as prepared for and used in arts and crafts.In predicative use sometimes = wooden. (Old English regularly used tréow tree n. 2 in this sense.)

c. as used for fuel; firewood n.†Occasionally collective singular faggots; locally, small coal (quot. 1805 at sense 8c).

d. Horticulture. The substance forming the head of a tree or shrub; branch-wood; also, branches collectively; in a fruit tree, primarily leaf-bearing, as distinguished from fruit-bearing, branches. (Cf. wood-bud n., wood-branch n. at Compounds 2a.)

e. As the material of an idol or image. (Biblical.)

f. spec. (Horticulture and Botany) The hard compact fibrous substance lying between the bark outside and the pith within.

g. A particular kind of wood; frequently plural kinds of wood. In Pharmacology formerly applied to particular kinds used medicinally: see quots. †to tell what wood the ship is made of, to be seasick.

h. transferred. A hard substance found in the head of an elephant.

i. In echoes of the Latin proverb which appears in Erasmus's Adagia ii. v. xlvii in the form Ne e quovis ligno Mercurius fiat (see quot. c1594, and cf. A. Otto Sprichwörter der Römer 220); hence, the ‘material’ or ‘stuff’ of which a person is ‘made’.Cf. similar uses of Greek ὕλη, French bois.

a. The wooden part of something, as the shaft of a spear.

b. A block of wood used for engraving or printing, as distinguished from a metal plate or type.

c. The cask or barrel as a receptacle for liquor, as distinguished from the bottle.

d. slang. The pulpit.

e. The wooden wind-instruments in an orchestra collectively (also called the woodwind: see Compounds 2 below).

f. Each of the bowls in the game of bowls.

g. A golf club with a wooden head; a shot made with such a club (more commonly wood shot).

h. The wooden frame or handle of a racket, with reference to a shot in which these parts are accidentally used instead of the strings.

†a. against the wood: ‘against the grain’ (grain n.¹ 16b).

†b. a piece of wood: a contemptuous appellation for a stupid person; a blockhead.

c. wood and wood: see quots.

d. to take in wood (U.S. regional colloquial): see quot.

e. In names of certain trees: wood of Jerusalem, a variety of pear; wood of life = lignum vitae n. 1.

f. spirit of wood (cf. spirit n. 23a).