treed
Chased up a tree or cornered there by hunting dogs.
Also called treeing.
Updated September 24, 2026
treed pronunciation
/TREED/
Meaning
When the hounds have treed a coon, the animal is up a trunk and the dogs are chopping bark at the base. Hunters hustle in with a light. A bear or possum can get treed too, sometimes in a cliff or hole instead of a real tree. People say somebody is treed when they are cornered with no clean way out.
How folks use it
- “The dogs treed a coon up that big oak.”
- “Once the sheriff showed up, he was treed and he knew it.”
Origin and etymology
From the hunting verb to tree, drive game into a tree. Long used in American English, and everyday talk among Southern and Appalachian coon hunters. The figurative cornered sense grew from that night-hunt picture.
Frequently asked questions
Does treed only mean a raccoon?
No. Coons get treed most often in talk, but dogs tree bears, cats, and possums too.