dogberry1
(ˈdɒgbɛrɪ)
[dog n.1 20 d.]
1. The ‘berry’ or drupe of the Wild Cornel or dogwood. b. The shrub; also dogberry-tree.
| 1551 Turner Herbal i. M j b, The female is called of some doge berry tree: sume call it corn tree. 1719–30 tr. Tournefort's Compl. Herb. 641 (Jod.) The common wild female cornus, called the dogwood, or dogberry tree. 1776 Withering Brit. Plants (1801) II. 198 Cornus sanguinea, Dogberry tree, Hounds tree, Hounds berry, Prick wood, Prick timber. 1879 H. Dalziel Dis. Dogs (1893) 97 Among preventives of hydrophobia..in vogue one time or another..leaves of the dog-berry tree. |
2. Applied to other shrubs or trees, or their fruit. a. In Nova Scotia, a kind of mountain-ash, Pyrus americana; in U.S. the Chokeberry, P. arbutifolia (Cent. Dict.). b. Applied locally in Britain to the Guelder Rose, the Bearberry, and the fruit of the Dog-rose. (Britten & Holland.)