Hard close-grained wood of any of various birch trees; used especially in furniture and interior finishes and plywood.

Polish: brzoza, brzezina

Any betulaceous tree or shrub of the genus Betula having a thin peeling bark.

synonym: birch tree.

Dutch: berk
Polish: brzoza

A switch consisting of a twig or a bundle of twigs from a birch tree; used to hit people as punishment:
— My father never spared the birch.

synonym: birch rod.

Roget 975: scourge, rod, cane, stick; ratan^†, rattan; birch, birch rod; azote^†, blacksnake^†, bullwhack [U.S.], chicote^†, kurbash^†, quirt, rawhide, sjambok^†; rod in pickle; switch, ferule, cudgel, truncheon.    whip, bullwhip, lash, strap, thong, cowhide, knout; cat, cat o'nine tails; rope's end.    pillory, stocks, whipping post; cucking stool^†, ducking stool; brank^†; trebuchet^†, trebuket^†.    [instruments of torture: list], triangle, wooden horse, iron maiden, thumbscrew, boot, rack, wheel, iron heel; chinese water torture.    treadmill, crank, galleys.    scaffold; block, ax, guillotine; stake; cross; gallows, gibbet, tree, drop, noose, rope, halter, bowstring; death chair, electric chair; gas chamber; lethal injection; firing squad; mecate^†.    house of correction etc. (prison) 752.    goaler, jailer; executioner; electrocutioner^†; lyncher; hangman; headsman^†; Jack Ketch.    ... show more

Whip with a birch twig.

Roget 972: punish; chastise, chasten; castigate, correct, inflict punishment, administer correction, deal retributive justice; cowhide, lambaste [Slang].    visit upon, pay; pay out, serve out; do for; make short work of, give a lesson to, serve one right, make an example of; have a rod in pickle for; give it one.    strike etc. 276; deal a blow to, administer the lash, smite; slap, slap the face; smack, cuff, box the ears, spank, thwack, thump, beat, lay on, swinge^†, buffet; thresh, thrash, pummel, drub, leather, trounce, sandbag, baste, belabor; lace, lace one's jacket; dress, dress down, give a dressing, trim, warm, wipe, tund^†, cob, bang, strap, comb, lash, lick, larrup, wallop, whop, flog, scourge, whip, birch, cane, give the stick, switch, flagellate, horsewhip, bastinado, towel, rub down with an oaken towel, rib roast, dust one's jacket, fustigate^†, pitch into, lay about one, beat black and blue; beat to a mummy, beat to a jelly; give a black eye.    tar and feather; pelt, stone, lapidate^†; masthead, keelhaul.    execute; bring to the block, bring to the gallows; behead, decapitate, guillotine; decollate; hang, turn off, gibbet, bowstring, hang draw and quarter; shoot; decimate; burn; break on the wheel, crucify; empale^†, impale; flay; lynch; electrocute; gas, send to the gas chamber.    torture; put on, put to the rack; picket.    banish, exile, transport, expel, ostracize; rusticate; drum out; dismiss, disbar, disbench^†; strike off the roll, unfrock; post.    suffer, suffer for, suffer punishment; be flogged.    be executed, suffer the ultimate penalty; be hanged &c.; come to the gallows, mount the gallows, swing [Coll.], twist in the wind, dance upon nothing, die in one's shoes; be rightly served; be electrocuted, fry [Coll.], ride the lightning [Coll.]; face the firing squad.    ... show more

Consisting of or made of wood of the birch tree.

synonyms: birchen, birken.

Polish: brzozowy