▪ I. berry, n.1
(ˈbɛrɪ)
Forms: 1 beriae, berie, beriȝe, berᵹe, 2–6 berie, 3–6 bery(e, (4 burie), 6–7 berrie, 6– berry.
[Found, with some variety of form, in all the Teutonic langs.: with OE. bęrie wk. fem., cf. ON. ber (Da. bær, Sw. bär), OS. beri (in wîn-beri), MDu. bēre, OHG. beri str. neut., MHG. ber and bere neut. and fem., mod.Ger. beere fem. These point to an OGer. *bazjo-m, as a byform of *basjo-m, whence Goth. basi neut. (in weina-basi ‘grape’). The s type is also preserved in MDu. beze, mod.Du. bes, also MDu. and mod.Du. bezie fem. The fem. forms Du. bēzie and OE. berie answer to an OTeut. extended form *basjôn-, *bazjôn-. The ulterior history is uncertain: *bazjo- has been conjecturally referred to *bazo-z bare (q.v.), as if a bare or uncovered fruit, also to the root represented by Skr. bhas- to eat.]
1. a. Any small globular, or ovate juicy fruit, not having a stone; in OE. chiefly applied to the grape; in mod. popular use, embracing the gooseberry, raspberry, bilberry, and their congeners, as well as the strawberry, mulberry, fruit of the elder, rowan-tree, cornel, honey-suckle, buckthorn, privet, holly, mistletoe, ivy, yew, crowberry, barberry, bearberry, potato, nightshade, bryony, laurel, mezereon, and many exotic shrubs; also sometimes the bird-cherry or ‘hag-berry’ (which is a stone-fruit), the haw, and hip of the rose; spec. in Scotland and north of England, it means the gooseberry.
| c 1000 ælfric Deut. xxiii. 24 Gif tu gange binnan þines freondes wineard, et þæra berᵹena. c 1000 Sax. Leechd. III. 114 Nym winberian þe beoþ acende æfter oþre beriᵹian. a 1225 Ancr. R. 276 Breres bereð rosen & berien. c 1250 Gen. & Ex. 2062 [A win-tre] blomede, and siðen bar ðe beries ripe. c 1386 Chaucer Prol. 207 His palfrey was as broune as is a bery. 1387 Trevisa Higden Rolls Ser. IV. 121 Þe juse of grapes and of buries [mori]. 1470–85 Malory Arthur xvi. x. (Globe) 385 A strong black horse, blacker than a bery. a 1500 Songs & Carols 15th C. 85 Ivy berith berys black. 1590 Shakes. Mids. N. iii. ii. 211 Two louely berries molded on one stem. 1667 Milton P.L. v. 307 For dinner savourie fruits..Berrie or Grape. 1793 Southey Lyric Poems II. 149 The cluster'd berries bright Amid the holly's gay green leaves. 1842 Tennyson Œnone 100 Garlanding the gnarled boughs With bunch and berry and flower. 1883 Birmingh. Weekly Post 11 Aug. 4/7 Last year the heaviest berry shown scaled 31 dwt. |
b. loosely. A coffee ‘bean.’
| 1712 Pope Rape Lock iii. 106 The berries crackle, and the mill turns round. |
c. slang (U.S.). A dollar; also (in U.K.), a pound. Usu. in pl. Hence the berries: an excellent person or thing; ‘the cat's whiskers’.
| 1918 H. C. Witwer From Baseball to Boches iv. ii. 147 When..I go back to baseball, I can drag down six thousand berries a year. 1920 ‘B. L. Standish’ Man on First 127 It don't take the shine off your little performance. You were there with the berries. 1922 S. Lewis Babbitt vii. 103 A fellow that..pulls down fifteen thousand berries a year! 1925 H. L. Foster Trop. Tramp Tourists 300 You think you're the berries, don't you? Well, you might have been once, but you're a flat-tire these days! 1926 S.P.E. Tract xxiv. 120 That's the berries, that's just right. 1934 Humorist 26 May 482/1 An attachment worth ten thousand berries in the open market. 1936 J. Dos Passos Big Money 43 He had what was left of the three hundred berries Hedwig coughed up. 1943 Wyndham Lewis Let. 9 Nov. (1963) 369 No intelligent book could get accepted by a N.Y. publisher, except perhaps a little publisher, who would give you a maximum of a thousand berries. |
2. Bot. A many-seeded inferior pulpy fruit, the seeds of which are, when mature, scattered through the pulp; called also bacca. In this sense, many of the fruits popularly so called, are not berries: the grape, gooseberry and currants, the bilberry, mistletoe berry, and potato fruit, are true berries; but, botanically, the name also includes the cucumber, gourd, and even the orange and lemon.
| 1809 Sir J. Smith Bot. 284 The simple many-seeded berries of the Vine, Gooseberry, &c. The Orange and Lemon are true Berries, with a thick coat. 1880 Gray Bot. Text-bk. vii. §2. 299 The Berry..comprises all simple fruits in which the pericarp is fleshy throughout. |
3. One of the eggs in the roe of a fish; also, the eggs of a lobster. A hen lobster carrying her eggs is said to be in berry or berried.
| 1768 Travis in Penny Cycl. II. 513/2 Hen lobsters are found in berry at all times of the year. 1876 Fam. Herald 9 Dec. 95/1 A large specimen [of lobster] will yield from five to eight ounces of ‘berry.’ |
4. Comb. and attrib., as berry-bush, berry-pie, berry-tree; berry-bearing, berry-brown, berry-like, berry-shaped adjs.; berry alder, berry-bearing alder, a shrub (Rhamnus frangula) = Alder Buckthorn; berry-button, a berry-shaped button; berry wax, wax obtained from the wax-berry (Myrica spp.), used for making candles and polishing floors (cf. bayberry-wax in quot. 1769 s.v. bayberry 2).
| 1863 Prior Plant-n. 20 *Berry-alder, a buckthorn..distinguished from them [the alders] by bearing berries. |
| 1742 W. Ellis Timber-tree II. xxiv. 140 A bacciferous, or *berry-bearing, Tree or Shrub. 1785 Cowper Task v. 82 Berry-bearing thorns That feed the thrush. 1796 W. H. Marshall Planting II. 313 Frangula, or Berry-bearing Alder. 1933 Jrnl. R. Hort. Soc. LVIII. 400 Wilsonii with leaves as large as Marnockii, but dull green and spiny, also berry-bearing. |
| 1611 Art Venerie 96 He seemed fayre tweene blacke and *berrie brounde. |
| 1820 Scott Abbot xvi, The Friars of Fail drank *berry-brown ale. |
| 1818 ― Rob Roy vi, ‘Pleased wi' the freedom o' the *berry-bushes.’ |
| 1702 Lond Gaz. No. 3783/4 A..Stuff Wastcoat with black and red *Berry-Buttons. |
| 1864 Monthly Even. Readings May 161 *Berry-like galls are formed on the peduncles. |
| 1836–9 Todd Cycl. Anat. & Phys. II 485/2 *Berry-shaped corpuscles seem to be appended. |
| 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xvii. c. (1495) 666 The fruyte of the wilde *bery tree. |
| 1897 Edmonds & Marloth Elem. Bot. S. Afr. xvii. 169 The genus Myrica, of which M. cordifolia and others supply the *berry-wax. 1913 R. Marloth Flora S. Afr. I. 133 The layer of wax on the berries of some species [of Myrica] is so considerable that it is technically exploited. The farmers boil the berries with water, strain the hot mixture and allow the melted wax to solidify. The berry wax (myrica wax) is of a pale greenish colour and considerably harder than beeswax. |
▪ II. ˈberry, n.2 Obs. exc. dial.
[f. OE. beorᵹ hill: a variant of barrow n.1 (While the nom. gave ME. beruh, berw, barw, barow, the dat. beorᵹe, with palatalized ᵹ, gave berȝe, beryhe, berye.)]
A mound, hillock, or barrow.
| 1205 Lay. 12311 Vnder ane berhȝe. 1393 Langl. P. Pl. B. v. 589 Thanne shaltow blenche at a berghe. a 1553 Udall Royster D. ii. iii. 36 Heigh derie derie, Trill on the berie. c 1563 Thersytes in Four O. Plays (1848) 79 We shall make merye and synge tyrle on the berye. 1613 W. Browne Brit. Past. i. ii. (1772) I. 56 Piping on thine oaten reede Upon this little berry (some ycleep A hillocke). 1807 Vancouver Agric. Devon (1813) 195 Removing the potatoes to the caves, heaps..ricks, or berrys (for by all such terms they are known in this country). |
¶ It is doubtful whether the quotation belongs to this or to berry n.3
| a 1700 Dryden Ovid's Art Love i. 103 The theatres are berries for the fair, Like ants on molehills thither they repair. |
▪ III. † ˈberry, n.3 Obs.
Forms: 5 bery, 6 beery, 6–7 berrie, berry.
[See burrow.]
1. A (rabbit's) burrow. Hence, the spec. name for a company of rabbits.
| 1486 Bk. St. Albans F vi, A Bery of Conyis. 1519 W. Horman Vulg. 283 b, I haue nede of a feret, to let into this beery to styrt out the conies. 1585 Mod. Curiosities Art & Nat., To make rabbets come out of their berries without a ferret. 1613 Purchas Pilgr. ix. vii. 862 It [the penguin]..feeds on fish and grass and harbors in berries. 1685 R. Burton Eng. Emp. Amer. xiii. 165 Musk-Rats who live in holes and Berries like Rabbits. |
2. transf. An excavation; a mine in besieging.
| 1598 Sylvester Du Bartas (1608) 514 Till one strict berrie, till one winding cave, Become the fight-field of two armies. |
▪ IV. † ˈberry, n.4 Obs.
[Cf. birr: perh. f. berry v.1; or, since found only in Florio and Cotgrave, an erroneous form.]
A gust or blast (of wind).
| 1598 Florio, Biffera..a whirlewind, a gust or berry of wind. 1611 ― Folata di uento..a gaile or berrie of winde. 1611 Cotgr., Tourbillon de vent..a gust, flaw, berrie of wind. |
▪ V. ˈberry, v.1 Obs. exc. dial.
Also bery, bury.
[ME. berien, bery, ad. ON. berja to strike, beat, thresh = OHG. berjan, MHG. berren, beren, bern; repr. in OE. only by pa. pple. ᵹebered. Cogn. w. L. ferīre to strike.]
1. trans. To beat, thrash.
| a 1225 Ancr. R. 188 Þer ȝe schulen iseon bunsen [v.r. berien] ham mit tes deofles bettles. 1808 Jamieson, Berry, to beat; as to berry a bairn, to beat a child. |
2. To thresh (corn, etc.). See berried ppl. a.
| 1483 Cath. Angl. 29 Bery..vbi to thresche. 1641 Best Farm. Bks. (1856) 142 Thrashers that bury by quarter-tale. 1691 Ray N. Country Wds., Berry, to thresh, i.e. to beat out the berry or grain of the corn. 1808 Jamieson, Berry, to thrash corn, Roxb., Dumfr. |
3. To beat (a path, etc.). See berried ppl. a.
▪ VI. berry, v.2
(ˈbɛrɪ)
[f. berry n.1; cf. to apple.]
1. intr. To come into berry; to fill or swell.
| 1865 E. Burritt Walk Land's End 402 The wheat, oats and barley..were now berrying full and plump. 1873 Blackmore Cradock N. xxx. (1883) 167 The late bees were buzzing around him though the linden had berried. |
2. To go a berrying, i.e. gathering berries.
| a 1871 Miss Sedgwick in Life & Lett. 44, I went with herds of school-girls nutting and berrying. |
▪ VII. berry
obs. form of bury.