EXAMPLES FROM THE WEB FOR SHRUB
A low tree, or usually merely a shrub, from Japan; often cultivated.
A shrub rather than a tree, cultivated from Siberia; hardy throughout.
Nearly every tree and shrub that will grow in this climate is here to be found.
The shrub grows wild on elevations between 1000 and 4000 feet.
Marie stooped to pluck a flower, and slipped behind the shrub.
Dendroid: tree or shrub-like: branching like a tree or shrub.
They search every tree, shrub, and vine for caterpillars, spiders and grasshoppers.
Not a tree was to be seen, nor even a shrub big enough to make a toothpick.
Not a tree nor shrub was to be found in this inhospitable region.
What is it, Walter—a shrub or a tree or a flower, or a mixture of all of them?
WORD ORIGIN
Old English scrybb "brushwood, shrubbery," a rare and late word (but preserved also, perhaps, in Shrewsbury), possibly from a Scandinavian source (cf. dialectal Danish skrub "brushwood," Norwegian skrubba "dwarf tree"). Presumably related to North Frisian skrobb "broom plant, brushwood;" West Flemish schrobbe "climbing wild pea," with a base notion of "rough plant," from PIE *(s)kerb-, extended form of root *(s)ker- (1) "to cut" (see shear (v.)).