Word.ws English Dictionary

in the green tree

in the green tree is the ellipsis of in the green tree … in the dry.

Meaning of in the green tree … in the dry

Prepositional phrase

  1. (dated, idiomatic) In a better situation as against a worse one; used chiefly in rhetorical questions to suggest that the current unfavorable situation will worsen in the future.
    • If this is seen in the green tree, what will it be in the dry? If this is so apparent now when the earth is loaded with her spontaneous fruits; what will it be when winter shall find them unprovided with the necessaries of life?1865 September 11, J. C. Randolph, “[Letter to Freedmen’s Bureau Commissioner]”, in Ira Berlin et al., editors, Freedom: A Documentary History of Emancipation, 1861–1867, volume 1/2, The Wartime...

Questions about in the green tree

What is in the green tree the ellipsis of?
In the green tree is the ellipsis of in the green tree … in the dry.

Words near in the green tree in the dictionary

  1. in the front row
  2. in the furtherance of justice
  3. in the future
  4. in the game
  5. in the green
  6. in the green tree
  7. in the green tree … in the dry
  8. in the grip of
  9. in the gristle
  10. in the groove
  11. in the gross

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: in the green tree (page history and authors); in the green tree … in the dry (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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