# blackberry

Pronunciation: US say "BLAK-be-ree" /ˈblækbɛɹi/; UK say "BLAK-buh-ree" /ˈblækbəɹi/

## Noun

1. The soft fruit of the bramble shrub, formed from a cluster of small drupelets that turn black when fully ripe.
   - Simple: A soft, dark purple-black fruit made up of many tiny juicy beads.
   - _She crushed a blackberry between her fingers, staining them deep purple._
   - _The hedgerows were heavy with blackberries by late August._
2. A prickly shrub of the Rubus fruticosus species aggregate or certain of its hybrids, grown or gathered for its fruit.
   - Simple: A thorny bush that grows in hedges and along paths and produces small dark berries.
   - _The gardener cut the blackberry back hard before winter._
   - _Several blackberries had spread into a dense, thorny thicket._
3. Any Rubus berry that is black or blackish, or the plant that produces it, used loosely without distinguishing the precise species. *(colloquial)*
   - Simple: Any blackish berry from a bramble plant, or the bush it grows on, used loosely without naming the exact kind.
   - _Out hiking, they lumped every black bramble fruit together as a blackberry._
   - _The kids picked what they called blackberries, though some were closer to dewberries._
5. In certain British dialects, the soft dark berry standardly called the blackcurrant. *(dialectal, UK)*
   - Simple: In some parts of Britain, the small dark berry known elsewhere as the blackcurrant.
   - _In the cottage garden the blackberry grew as a low, thornless bush between the gooseberries and the redcurrants, its sour fruit hanging in strings._
   - _They strained the blackberries through muslin to bottle the cordial._

## Verb

4. To gather or forage for blackberries, typically from wild hedgerows in late summer.
   - Simple: To go out and collect ripe blackberries from bushes in the wild.
   - _Families blackberry together once the hedgerows ripen in late summer._
   - _He spent the whole morning blackberrying in the lane behind the church._

## Origin

From Middle English blakberie ('brambleberry'), from Old English blæcberġe. It is equivalent to 'black' plus 'berry'.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/blackberry (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).