[LIVE a.] An American evergreen tree (Quercus virens) growing in the southern Atlantic States. The name is applied to some other species in the Pacific States.
The second quotation probably refers to the Ilex.
1610. True Declar. Col. Virginia (1844), 22. Ashe, Sarsafrase, liue Oake, greene all the yeare, Cedar and Firre.
1671. trans. Frejus’ Voy. Mauritania, 43. Mountains, whose tops in crossing we found also covered … with live-Oaks, (which are green all the year,) and wild Pines.
1770. Cook, Jrnl., 6 May (Wharton, 1893), 248. The wood of this is hard and Ponderous, and something of the Nature of America [sic] live Oak.
1841. Catlin, N. Amer. Ind. (1844), II. xxxvi. 32. The ever-green live oak and lofty magnolia dress the forest in a perpetual mantle of green.
1862. S. L. J., Life in South (1863), II. xvi. 306. Valuable timber, such as live oak.
1883. Stevenson, Treas. Isl., III. xiv. I crawled under cover of the nearest live-oak.
attrib. 1792. Descr. Kentucky, 51. The American live-oak and cedar ships cost from 33 to 35 dollars [a ton].
1863. T. W. Higginson, Army Life (1870), 40. The great live-oak branches, and their trailing moss.
