whortleberry
Americannoun
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the edible black berry of a Eurasian shrub, Vaccinium myrtillus, of the heath family.
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the shrub itself.
noun
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Also called : huckleberry. hurt. whort. a small Eurasian ericaceous shrub, Vaccinium myrtillus , greenish-pink flowers and edible sweet blackish berries
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the fruit of this shrub
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a related plant, V. uliginosum, of mountain regions, having pink flowers and black fruits
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of whortleberry
First recorded in 1570–80; dialectal variant of hurtleberry
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Mr. Glass continued in an interrogative vein as mordant as the whortleberry juice of his beautiful homeland.
From Time Magazine Archive
For the most part it was covered with a thick growth of gorse and whortleberry, and low tough thorns, though here and there clearings opened, the scars of recent fires.
From "The Two Towers" by J. R. R. Tolkien
Blae′berry, Scotch name for the bilberry or whortleberry.
From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 1 of 4: A-D) by Various
We were making among wet whortleberry thicket and torn rock towards the spot where I had seen the birds wheel and circle, screaming.
From Miss Cayley's Adventures by Allen, Grant
Under our feet was the purple heath with great patches of whortleberry, that tiny shrub that bears the little purply grey fruit.
From Patience Wins War in the Works by Fenn, George Manville
TV dinners, also makes it virtually impossible to import fresh Swedish whortleberries, despite the fact that it does not grow the delicacy itself.
From Time Magazine Archive
"We might almost have known you were coming,” laughs my sister, "there is just your favourite dish, potato-cakes, and even whortleberries to go with them too.”
From "All Quiet on the Western Front: A Novel" by Erich Maria Remarque
We shall very soon have no coffee, nor sugar, nor pepper, here; but whortleberries and milk we are not obliged to commerce for.
From Familiar Letters of John Adams and His Wife Abigail Adams During the Revolution with a Memoir of Mrs. Adams by Adams, Abigail
Hard-wooded plants will be generally found to do best; indeed, some of the shrub tribe succeed very well, particularly barberry, pernettyas, the early daphnes, whortleberries, gaultheria shallon and cotoneaster.
From Small Gardens and How to Make the Most of Them by Biddle, Violet Purton
Just where he was going to cut his fagots, people used to come in autumn to gather whortleberries.
From Arne; A Sketch of Norwegian Country Life by Bj?rnson, Bj?rnstjerne
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
