English

Noun

shrub ‎(plural shrubs)

1. A woody plant smaller than a tree, and usually with several stems from the same base.

Synonyms

• bush (plant)

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

shrub ‎(third-person singular simple present shrubs, present participle shrubbing, simple past and past participle shrubbed)

1. (obsolete) To lop; to prune.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Anderson (1573) to this entry?)

2. (transitive, Kenyan English) To mispronounce a word by replacing its consonant sound(s) with another or others of a similar place of articulation.

   For example, /ʃɹʌb/ → /sɹʌb/

Etymology 2

From Arabic شِرَاب ‎(širāb, “a drink, beverage”), شَرِبَ ‎(šariba, “to drink”), akin to sirup, sherbet

Noun

shrub ‎(plural shrubs)

1. A liquor composed of vegetable acid, fruit juice (especially lemon), sugar, sometimes vinegar, and a small amount of spirit as a preservative. Modern shrub is usually non-alcoholic, but in earlier times it was often mixed with a substantial amount of spirit such as brandy or rum, thus making it a liqueur.

Translations

Anagrams

• brush