forest

forest
1. A plant formation that is composed of trees the crowns of which touch, so forming a continuous canopy (compare WOODLAND).

2. A collective noun describing the trees that comprise an area of forested land.

3. In Britain, from Norman times, a district reserved for the hunting of deer, often belonging to the sovereign, to which special laws applied and which was administered by special officers. The word ‘forest’ is derived from the Latin foris, ‘out of doors’: the land lay beyond those enclosed for agriculture or parkland, and was unfenced. The land set aside as forest was not necessarily tree-covered, especially in the uplands, and might include open heath, grass, and bog, as well as wooded areas. Most of the land formerly under forest law has been disafforested, although a district may still bear the ‘forest’ designation, e.g. ‘Dartmoor Forest’. Some Crown forests, never disafforested, came to be used for growing timber, especially for ship-building, and today are managed by the Forestry Commission, e.g. New Forest, Forest of Dean.

4. To plant with trees.