she-oak

English

Etymology

she- +‎ oak

Pronunciation

• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /ˈʃioʊk/
• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈʃiːəʊk/

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

Noun

she-oak (countable and uncountable, plural she-oaks)

1. (Australia, countable) Any of various trees and shrubs of the family Casuarinaceae growing in Australasia and parts of Asia.
   • 1907, Barbara Baynton, edited by Sally Krimmer and Alan Lawson, Human Toll (Portable Australian Authors: Barbara Baynton), St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, published 1980, page 183:

     But there were other nights, wild and stormy, when the moon had gone to another town and every star was dark side down, and when the wind, while she slept, had left the she-oaks by the river to moan forebodingly round the house.

   • 1985, Peter Carey, Illywhacker, Faber & Faber, published 2003, page 96:

     When she swung the belt again he crossed his fingers for her and screwed up his face in sympathy when it caught, in mid-air, on a branch of a big old she-oak that hung above the falls.

2. (Australia, uncountable, slang, now rare) Beer.