shrub vs tree

shrub

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

  • A word mispronounced by replacing some consonant sounds with others of a similar place of articulation due to interference from one's knowledge of an indigenous Kenyan language. 

  • 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. 

verb
  • To mispronounce a word by replacing some consonant sounds with others of a similar place of articulation due to interference from one's knowledge of an indigenous Kenyan language. 

tree

noun
  • A perennial woody plant, not exactly defined, but differentiated from a shrub by its larger size (typically over a few meters in height) or growth habit, usually having a single (or few) main axis or trunk unbranched for some distance above the ground and a head of branches and foliage. 

  • Any plant that is reminiscent of the above but not classified as a tree (in any botanical sense). 

  • The fifth Lenormand card. 

  • A recursive data structure in which each node has zero or more nodes as children. 

  • An object made from a tree trunk and having multiple hooks or storage platforms. 

  • The structural frame of a saddle. 

  • A connected graph with no cycles or, if the graph is finite, equivalently a connected graph with n vertices and n−1 edges. 

  • A display or listing of entries or elements such that there are primary and secondary entries shown, usually linked by drawn lines or by indenting to the right. 

  • Any structure or construct having branches representing divergence or possible choices. 

  • The structure or wooden frame used in the construction of a saddle used in horse riding. 

  • Marijuana. 

  • A mass of crystals, aggregated in arborescent forms, obtained by precipitation of a metal from solution. 

  • A device used to hold or stretch a shoe open. 

verb
  • To chase (an animal or person) up a tree. 

  • To place in a tree. 

  • To place upon a tree; to fit with a tree; to stretch upon a tree. 

  • To take refuge in a tree. 

How often have the words shrub and tree occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )