woodland
(ˈwʊdlənd)
Forms: see wood n.1 and land n.1
1. a. Land covered with wood, i.e. with trees; a wooded region or piece of ground.
| 869 in Birch Cartul. Sax. II. 141 æᵹþer ᵹe etelond ᵹe eyrð lond ᵹe eac wudulond. c 1205 Lay. 1699 Wenne hundes hine bistondeð i þon wode-londe. a 1400 Sir Perc. 208 In that wodde land. 1456 Sir G. Haye Gov. Princes Wks. (S.T.S.) II. 137 Cow or calf..in wodland upbrocht. 1536 R. De Benese Meas. Land A ij, Woodlande and fyldelande be not measured with perches of lyke and equale length. 1573 Tusser Husb. (1878) 31 What champion vseth, That woodland refuseth. 1610 Holland Camden's Brit. 567 In the mids of this Woodland standeth Coventrey. 1622 Selden Illustr. Drayton's Poly-olb. xiii. 15 What is now the Woodland in Warwickshire, was heretofore part of a larger Weald or Forest, called Arden. 1669 Worlidge Syst. Agric. (1681) 88 There's no Field Champion-Land of that yearly value for either Corn or Pasture, as is the Wood-land. 1709 Prior Henry & Emma 307 She to the Wood-land with an Exile ran. 1763 W. Roberts Nat. Hist. Florida 34 The number of marshes and woodlands prevented the horse from pursuing them. 1793 M. Cutler in Life, etc. (1888) II. 276 Tracts of woodland never yet cleared, but kept inclosed for a supply of fuel and timber. 1824 W. Irving T. Trav. ii. iv. I. 214 A hunting-seat of Queen Elizabeth,..when the neighbourhood was all woodland. 1867 ‘Ouida’ Cecil Castlemaine i, The morning was fair and cloudless, its sunbeams piercing through the darkest glades in the woodlands. |
b. attrib. Of or pertaining to woodland; used, situated, dwelling, or growing in woodland; consisting of or containing woodland; belonging to or characteristic of woodland; sylvan. woodland caribou, a northern caribou, Rangifer tarandus, found in forested areas of Canada.
† woodland penny, woodland silver = wood-penny, -silver: see wood n.1 10.
| 1351–2 Durham Acc. Rolls (Surtees) 552, vij li. iij s. i d. de Wodeland penys ad festum Nat. beati Joh. Bap. 1396–7 Ibid. 136 Ep'o pro Wodlandsiluer, vj d. 1536–7 Ibid. 674 Pro Wodlandpennez ejusdem ville. 1536 R. De Benese Meas. Land A ij, Two maner of perches, the woodlande perche and the fyldeland perche... The woodlande perche is communely .xviii. foote in length. But in some places it is longer. 1577 Harrison England iii. xii. 111 b/1 in Holinshed, Adders..are found only in our woodland countryes and highest groundes. 1601 Shakes. All's Well iv. v. 49, I am a woodland fellow sir, that alwaies loued a great fire. 1610 Hopton Baculum Geodæt. vi. lii. 264 The woodland measure of 18 feete in the pole. 1697 Dryden Virg. Georg. iv. 783 Adore the Woodland Pow'rs with Pray'r. 1725 Pope Odyss. ix. 178 Rows'd by the woodland nymphs..The mountain goats came bounding o'er the lawn. 1798 Wordsw. Tables Turned iii, Come, hear the woodland linnet. ― We are Seven iii, She had a rustic, woodland air. 1805 Scott Last Minstr. iii. xiii, They came to a woodland brook. 1831 ― Quentin D. Introd., In the more woodland districts of Flanders. 1854 Mayne Reid Young Voyageurs 154 He had killed three caribou, of the large variety known as ‘woodland caribou’. 1855 Kingsley Westw. Ho! xxv, Garments..rather the worse for a fortnight's woodland travel. 1855 Tennyson Maud i. xii. ii, Gathering woodland lilies. 1877 Black Green Past. i, The secrecy and silence of the still woodland ways. 1879 Cassell's Nat. Hist. III. 68 The Woodland Caribou and the Barren-ground Caribou are the names given to a larger and a smaller breed in Canada. 1902 Cornish Naturalist Thames 76 The [grey] partridge is becoming a woodland bird. 1921 Daily Colonist (Victoria, B.C.) 30 Oct. 21/1 The only caribou I've ever hunted were in the Kootenays, woodland caribou. 1965 F. Symington Tuktu 44 The woodland caribou eats about the same forage as the barren-ground caribou. |
2. Archæol. (With capital initial.) The name of a culture that existed in eastern North America between approximately 1000 b.c. and a.d. 1000, characterized by agriculture, hunting, burial mounds, and a distinctive style of pottery.
| 1917 C. Wissler Amer. Indian xiv. 219 We now come to the so-called Eastern Woodland area, the characterization of which is difficult. 1946 Nature 2 Nov. 615/2 A single mound-group belongs to a later phase, the Middle Mississippi, and the village site and one mound are ascribed to the Woodland-culture pattern, probably still later. 1967 Listener 2 Mar. 290/2 Most of the characteristic traits of the late, i.e., the Woodland, period are found in incipient form in the late Archaic, and it is a period about which it is difficult to generalize. 1977 G. Clark World Prehistory (ed. 3) ix. 408 Hunting and fishing continued to play significant roles..even during the terminal phase of the Woodland culture (a.d. 900–1300). |
Hence ˈwoodlanded ppl. a., covered with woodland; ˈwoodlander, an inhabitant of the woodland; occas. an animal that lives in woodland; also, a plant whose natural habitat is in woodland.
| 1774 T. West Antiq. Furness (1805) 40 The woodlanders of High Furness were charged with the care of the flocks and herds. 1810 Wordsw. Prose Wks. (1876) II. 259 A few vassals following the employment of shepherds or woodlanders. 1887 Hardy (title) The Woodlanders. 1889 F. A. Knight By Leafy Ways 61 Another much calumniated woodlander, the badger. 1945 J. Betjeman New Bats in Old Belfries 6 By roads ‘not adopted’, by woodlanded ways She drove to the club in the late summer haze. 1948 W. Arnold-Forster Shrubs for Milder Counties iv. 113 D[aphne] Blagayana. A dwarf woodlander, evergreen. 1974 Country Life 12 Dec. 1896/1 American woodlanders, such as shortias and erythroniums revel in it [sc beech leaf-mould]. 1982 Garden CVII. 487/2 All [clintonias] are woodlanders or shade plants. |