A park-like tract of land, with trees here and there; a natural park.
1704. On the south side of the place in the swamp … which is called the first opening.—‘Providence’ (R.I.) ‘Records,’ iv. 178 (N.E.D.).
1821. These grounds are also termed Openings; as being in a great degree destitute of forests.—T. Dwight, ‘Travels,’ iv. 58. (Italics in the original.)
1833. At a sudden turning of the path, I came at once upon the “oak openings.”—C. F. Hoffman, ‘A Winter in the Far West,’ i. 139–40 (Lond., 1835).
1835. We ascended the hills, taking a westerly course through an undulating country of “oak openings,” where the eye stretched at times over wide tracts of hill and dale, diversified by forests, groves, and clumps of trees.—W. Irving, ‘A Tour of the Prairies,’ p. 77 (Bartlett).
1835. Among the ‘oak openings’ you find some of the most lovely landscapes of the West, and travel for miles and miles through varied park scenery of natural growth, with all the diversity of gently-swelling hill and dale—here, trees grouped, or standing single—and there, arranged in long avenues as though by human hands, with slips of open meadow between.—C. J. Latrobe, ‘The Rambler in North America,’ ii. 161 (N.Y.).
1838. Some of the most lovely scenery of the West is beheld in the landscapes of these barrens or “oak openings,” as they are more appropriately styled.—E. Flagg, ‘The Far West,’ i. 192 (N.Y.).
1844. The prospect was magnificent. A few hardy flowers, even at that late season, were in bloom; at wide intervals were seen the ‘oak openings,’ the mighty moss-covered trunks, and giant branches crowned with the most gorgeous foliage, towering far, far up, as if they would embrace the very clouds, so antique, so quiet, so covered at the roots with fresh green sward, they seemed of all others the very abodes of fays and fairies.—Yale Lit. Mag., ix. 266 (April).
