tree of knowledge

English edit

Noun edit

tree of knowledge (countable and uncountable, plural trees of knowledge)

  1. (biblical) One of the trees in the Garden of Eden.
    Meronym: forbidden fruit
    Coordinate term: tree of life
    • 1817, Lord Byron, Manfred:
      Sorrow is knowledge: they who know the most / Must mourn the deepest o'er the fatal truth, / The Tree of Knowledge is not that of Life.
    • 1912, Mary Antin, The Promised Land[1]:
      She asked her wise rebbe how God came to be in His place, and where He found the stuff to make the world of [] . Finding from his unsatisfying replies that the rebbe was but a barren branch on the tree of knowledge, the good little girl never betrayed to the world, by look or word, her discovery of his limitations, but continued to accord him, outwardly, all the courtesy due to his calling.

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