Other forms: saplings
A sapling is a young slender tree. Plant a sapling, a row of saplings, the sapling took.
It is past the seedling stage and not yet a tree, and the first few years decide everything: most planted ones die of drought or of being strimmed rather than of anything exotic. The -ling ending marks something young, as in duckling.
1nounsaplingA young slender tree.
“We planted a row of oak saplings along the edge of the field.”
sapling is a tree.
Sap plus -ling, an ending marking a young or small thing.
Middle English
saplyng
English, today
sapling
From Middle English saplyng, seplyng, sapling, equivalent to sap + ling.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA