bayberry

American  

[bay-ber-ee, -buh-ree] / ˈbeɪˌbɛr i, -bə ri /

noun

• bayberries
  plural

1. any of several often aromatic trees or shrubs of the genus Myrica, as M. pensylvanica, of northeastern North America, and M. californica, of the western U.S.

2. the berry of such a plant.

3. bay.

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bayberry British  

/ ˈbeɪbərɪ /

noun

1. any of several North American aromatic shrubs or small trees of the genus Myrica , that bear grey waxy berries: family Myricaceae See also wax myrtle

2. Also called: bay rum tree. a tropical American myrtaceous tree, Pimenta racemosa , that yields an oil used in making bay rum

3. the fruit of any of these plants

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• bayberries
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of bayberry

First recorded in 1570–80; bay ⁴ + berry

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

bayberry bayberries

A fuzzy, freckled gull chick emerged from a bayberry bush, stared curiously at me as if it had spotted a Martian, and then waddled back to its hiding place.

From New York Times ● Sep. 20, 2023

Now, it is a larger and maturing display that includes towering shrubs of buttonbush and bayberry amid lower drifts of lobelia, aster, swamp mallow, goldenrod and winterberry.

From Seattle Times ● Sep. 27, 2021

More than 100 seedlings, including pin oak, American birch, magnolias and redbuds, plus nearly 400 shrubs, including winterberry, northern bayberry, witch hazel, highbush blueberry and azaleas, will be planted, he said.

From Washington Post ● May 2, 2017

Once, it had been a joy to follow those roads through the evergreen forests—roads lined with bayberry and sweet fern, alder and huckleberry.

From The New Yorker ● Jan. 3, 2017

Once it had been a joy to follow those roads through the evergreen forests, roads lined with bayberry and sweet fern, alder and huckleberry.

From "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson

For two days they had been boiling the small gray bayberries that Kit and Judith had gathered in the fields, and Rachel had skimmed off the thick greenish tallow.

From "The Witch of Blackbird Pond" by Elizabeth George Speare

Fifthly, a small pot of diatesseron, composed of gentian, myrrh, bayberries, and round aristolochia.

From Old Saint Paul's A Tale of the Plague and the Fire by William Harrison Ainsworth

So they looked and found plenty of green for wreaths, and some bayberries like coral, and some holly, besides, by the ruins of the deserted house that had burned down years before they were born.

From Half-Past Seven Stories by Robert Gordon Anderson

Elmira picked bayberries, too, and sold 'em to the shoemaker for tallow; she sold a lot in Dale.

From Jerome, A Poor Man A Novel by Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman

The pastures are blue now with bayberries, which seem to be their favorite food.

From Old Plymouth Trails by Winthrop Packard

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