blueberry

Pluralblueberries

Formsblueberrier, blueberriest

Formsblueberries, blueberrying, blueberried

1. 1
   nouncountable

   An edible round berry from the cowberry group, with flared crowns at one end, that turns blue as it ripens.

   She folded fresh blueberries into the muffin batter.

   A single blueberry rolled off the counter and under the fridge.

   Note

   A plain compound, blue plus berry, that names the fruit for the color it reaches on ripening. Anthocyanin is the pigment behind that blue. In cooking, the noun often stands before another noun as a modifier: blueberry sauce, blueberry muffins, blueberry ice cream. In that position it means 'made with the fruit', not 'blue in color'.

2. 2
   nouncountable

   The woody shrub that bears blueberries, belonging to the genus Vaccinium.

   He pruned each blueberry in early spring to encourage new growth.

   A row of blueberries lined the edge of the field.

3. 3
   nouncountable or uncountable

   A dark blue color, of the shade seen on ripe blueberries.

   The evening sky deepened to a rich blueberry just after sunset.

   Her dress shifted from teal to blueberry under the stage lights.

4. 4
   adjective

   Of a dark blue color, resembling the skin of ripe blueberries.

   The designer chose blueberry upholstery for the lounge chairs.

   His blueberry blazer stood out against the gray suits.

   Note

   A color name with a shop-counter ring. Veronique, posting to alt.fan.cecil-adams in 2007, reports a shop's Periwinkle 'now renamed blueberry' and judges blueberry the bluer of the two. Before a noun the word can be ambiguous: a blueberry blazer is colored, but blueberry sauce is made of fruit, so context does the sorting. The flavor reading belongs to the 'like blueberries' adjective.

5. 5
   verbintransitive

   To collect blueberries by hand, or to search the woods and fields for them.

   Locals blueberry on the mountain slopes when the bushes are heavy with fruit.

   He blueberried all morning and came home with two full pails.

   Note

   A verb for an outing more than an act. People go blueberrying, or have been blueberrying together for years, or blueberried on a flat beside the river, as Kathrene Pinkerton writes in Wilderness Life (1939). It takes no object: you blueberry, but you do not blueberry a hillside. The -ing form does most of the work, much as it does in going berrying or fishing.

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