Definition of OAK

Examples of oak in a Sentence

Tall oaks line the street. The table is solid oak. The cabinets are made of oak.

Recent Examples on the Web

The builds use signature wood accents in customizable options—think maple, oak, mahogany, and cherry. — Megan Barber, Curbed, "Luxury camper van fits all the essentials in 112 square feet," 16 Oct. 2018 This is a major way to distinguish phytophotodermatitis from contact dermatitis, an allergic skin reaction that can happen in response to the more usual suspects such as poison ivy, oak, or sumac. — Zahra Barnes, SELF, "Beware of Phytophotodermatitis, The Weird Sun Reaction That Could Definitely Ruin Your Summer," 18 Aug. 2018 About 60 homes were ordered evacuated as the blaze erupted late Tuesday and winds whipped flames through brush, grass, oak, pine and fir near Mendocino National Forest, Mendocino County Undersheriff Matthew Kendall said. — Fox News, "New fires erupt in Northern California; homes threatened," 1 Aug. 2018 Trees like oak, ash, birch, and maple see pollen surges in the spring. — Umair Irfan, Vox, "It’s not your imagination. Allergy season gets worse every year.," 28 Apr. 2018 An open-grain wood, oak isn't ideal for direct food preparation, Pless explains. — Taysha Murtaugh, Country Living, "Butcher-Block Countertops: Pros, Cons, and Everything Else You Should Know," 15 Jan. 2019 The White House says the 12- to 14-foot sapling came from the original Eisenhower oak near an East Wing garden created by former first lady Jacqueline Kennedy. — Darlene Superville, The Seattle Times, "Melania Trump helps plant baby Eisenhower oak at White House," 27 Aug. 2018 The 12-to-14-foot sapling came from the original Eisenhower oak that towers over an East Wing garden created by former first lady Jacqueline Kennedy. — Samuel Chamberlain, Fox News, "Melania Trump joins presidential descendants to plant baby Eisenhower oak at White House," 27 Aug. 2018 Plant pathologists and arborists alike tell us that all pruning of oaks should be done between mid-July and Valentine’s Day because that’s when the oak wilt fungus is inactive in our trees. — Neil Sperry, star-telegram, "Here’s your gardening to-do list for the second part of the summer," 11 July 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'oak.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

History and Etymology for oak

Middle English ook, oke, going back to Old English āc, going back to Germanic *eik- (whence also Old Frisian ēk "oak," Old Saxon ēc, Old High German eih, eihha, Old Norse eik), of obscure origin

Note: Old English āc is a feminine root noun (dative singular and nominative plural ǣc), though forms leveled to other declensions with umlaut are already evident. Germanic *eik- has been compared with the Greek words aigílōps, a name in Theophrastus for a species of oak (Quercus macrolepis?), and krátaigos, a species of hawthorn (also in Theophrastus), but interpretation of the conjoined elements of these words is conjectural (lṓpē is not actually attested in the sense "cork" or "bark"). The derivation of Latin aesculus "a species of oak (Quercus petraea?)" is obscure. The Lithuanian dialect forms áižuols and áužuolas "oak," superficially comparable, are hypercorrections of ą́žuolas, which is very unlikely to be related to *eik- (cf. Old Prussian ansonis = German eche in the Elbing Vocabulary).

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