blackberries

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of blackberry.

   She baked a pie filled with blackberries from the garden.

   Wild blackberries grow along the hedgerows in late summer.

   Note

   Here the final y of blackberry becomes -ies, which gives a plural spelled exactly like the verb for foraging. The noun can mean the fruit or the shrubs that bear it, so blackberries along a hedge may be either. In broad, informal use it covers any blackish Rubus berry, and in some UK dialects it names blackcurrants, which is worth keeping in mind with regional speech.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of blackberry.

   She blackberries each September, filling baskets for jam.

   Whenever the hedges turn dark with fruit, he blackberries until dusk.

   Note

   A verb made directly from the fruit's name. Like forage, it usually stands without an object, as in she blackberries each September. The same form also belongs to a second verb, sending a text or email from a BlackBerry device. Context tells you whether someone is picking fruit along a lane or typing on a handheld.

Showing meanings only. Show all 2