forest

Pluralforests

Formsforests, foresting, forested

1. 1
   woodlandnouncountable or uncountable

   A large area of land covered mainly with trees and undergrowth, whether wild or planted, usually bigger than a wood.

   The forest stretched for miles across the valley floor.

   Loggers cleared part of the ancient forest last spring.

   UsageCommon phrases include in the forest, a dense forest, and rain forest.

   Similarwoodland, woods

   Note

   This is the everyday sense, though the word began in English as a name for royal hunting ground. A wood can be modest, but a forest is extensive and often wild, like the "forest wilde" of Spenser's The Faerie Queene (1590). Many modern forests, though, are planted and managed for timber. Source

   Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 5 facts

   • Forest originally entered English as a term for hunting ground. en.wikipedia.org
   • Edmund Spenser wrote The Faerie Queene. en.wikisource.org
   • The exact phrase forest wilde occurs in The Faerie Queene. en.wikisource.org
   • The first publication of The Faerie Queene, including the quoted passage in Book I, was in 1590. en.wikisource.org
   • Many modern forests are planted and managed for timber. fao.org
2. 2
   cover with treesverbtransitive

   To cover an area of land with trees.

   Large stretches of former farmland have been forested since the program began, mostly with native hardwoods.

   Over the next twenty years, the abandoned pastureland was slowly forested with native hardwoods, and deer soon returned to the area.

   UsageMostly passive or as an adjective: was forested with oaks, heavily forested hills.

   Similarplant, afforest

   Oppositedeforest, clear

3. 3
   dense massnouncountable or uncountable

   A dense collection or large amount of anything.

   A forest of cranes rose above the city's booming skyline.

   He got lost in a forest of paperwork before the deadline.

   Similarmass, sea, thicket, jungle, maze

   Note

   Here the word becomes a measure of crowding: a forest of legs, a forest of criticism. The image is sharpest for things that stand close and upright, like the legs a calf scrabbles through in Katharine Payne's Silent Thunder (1998). Source

   Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

   • Katharine Payne, also known as Katy Payne, wrote Silent Thunder. en.wikipedia.org
   • Silent Thunder was first published in 1998. awionline.org
   • Silent Thunder describes a calf scrabbling through a forest of legs. en.wiktionary.org
4. 4
   protected royal landnounhistoricalcountable or uncountable

   An area of land in England, especially from the Norman Conquest to the 1600s, set aside as royal hunting ground or for other privileged use.

   Villagers living inside a royal forest had to obey special laws that protected the king's deer.

   The Crown's officers patrolled the forest to guard the king's deer.

   Note

   A legal term rather than a botanical one: this was land placed under forest law for the Crown's hunting or other privileged use, so it need not have trees at all. The Forest of Bowland is largely bare gritstone hill and peat moorland. Edwin Black's Internal Combustion (2006) describes the forest as a focus of popular grievance in the 1500s, and notes that Robin Hood's green clothing stood for it. Source

   Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 7 facts

   • A medieval forest was legally reserved land, including land reserved for royal hunting. en.wikipedia.org
   • A royal forest did not necessarily contain trees. en.wikipedia.org
   • The Forest of Bowland contains gritstone hills and peat moorland. en.wikipedia.org
   • The Bowland fells are largely treeless. forestofbowland.com
   • Edwin Black wrote Internal Combustion, first published in 2006. openlibrary.org
   • Black describes forests as a focus of popular grievances during the 1500s. en.wiktionary.org
   • Black says Robin Hood's green clothing symbolized the forest. en.wiktionary.org

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