bayberry

American  

[bey-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.

---

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

---

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• bayberries
  plural

Etymology

Origin of bayberry

First recorded in 1570–80; bay ⁴ + berry

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

bayberry bayberries

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

In the heart of the garden, there are towering shrubs of buttonbush and bayberry amid lower drifts of lobelia, aster, swamp mallow, goldenrod and winterberry.

From Washington Post ● Sep. 14, 2021

Park in the municipal lot and take a short path through the dune grass and bayberry to the narrow crescent beach.

From New York Times ● Aug. 8, 2019

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

“A tincture of bayberry juice and oil of roses may relieve the pain, so that the sensation of Christ’s sweetness becomes even greater,” I say.

From "Ophelia" by Lisa Klein

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

Bayberry wax was a standard farm production wherever bayberries grew, and was advertised in New England papers until this century.

From Customs and Fashions in Old New England by Alice Morse Earle

The flicker devours most of the fruits listed for the two woodpeckers named above, also hackberry, black alder, green brier, bayberries.

From Seed Dispersal by W. J. (William James) Beal

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