pinebranch

plural pinebranches

1. A branch of a pine.

   Muscicapa albicollis, settled in the box No. 5. — The nest consists of moss, small pinebranches, particles of dry roots; the cup is made of pine-needles and hair.

   1957, Gy. Gárdonyi, “Trials of bird-settling in the mountains of Sopron”, in Aquila, Budapest: Mezőgazdasági Kiadó, page 56

   5 more examples

   The ruined hut was roofless, but across an angle of the walls some pinebranches had been flung, as a sort of shelter for the sheep or cattle that might repair thither in cruel weather—[…] Over them where they lay bended down the pinebranch roof, as if it would give way beneath the increasing weight; […]

   1872, a former H.M. Inspector of Schools, editor, The School Board Readers. Standard V. Adapted to the Requirements of the New Code, 1871., London: Charles Griffin and Company, […], pages 116–117

   And now when I think of you I see you on your piano-stool finger the ineffectual bright keys and even in the pinkish parlor glow your eyes sea-grey are very wide as if they carried the reflection of mocking black pinebranches and unclimbed red-purple mountains mist-tattered under a violet-gleaming evening.

   1922, John Dos Passos, A Pushcart at the Curb, New York, N.Y.: George H. Doran Company, page 158

   BUT come to wild Södermanland / Where forests hem you at each hand. / Come in the twilight to the coast: / The owl is stationed at his post / Upon the pinebranch every night— / To see him gives you quite a fright, / Whose eyes are fastened on the seas / And mindful of its mysteries.

   1950 June, Terence Heywood, “Owl by Liljefors”, in The American-Scandinavian Review, volume XXXVIII, number 2, The American-Scandinavian Foundation, page 162

   Across road forestwall is darker, deeper, pine trunks stand luminous in the dark shade bespotted & specked with background browngreen masses—horizontal puff-green pinebranches, all over the frizzly corn top sea—[…]

   1952–57, Jack Kerouac, Book of Sketches, 1952–57, New York, N.Y.: Penguin Books, published 2006, →ISBN, page 32

   To chase away the gloom, the family threw pinebranches on their fire, till the dry leaves crackled, and the flame arose, discovering once again a scene of peace and humble happiness.

   1964 [1835], Nathaniel Hawthorne, “The Ambitious Guest”, in Vincent F[oster] Hopper, editor, Classic American Short Stories, Great Neck, N.Y.: Barron’s Educational Series, Inc., →LCCN, pages 32–33