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
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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
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The baked sweet apple and whortleberry seem to be least objectionable.
From Vegetable Diet: As Sanctioned by Medical Men, and by Experience in All Ages Including a System of Vegetable Cookery by Alcott, William A. (William Andrus)
He remembered as a tiny child lying in the sun watching a butterfly like that; watching it walk up and down on a twig of whortleberry, opening and shutting its new-born wings.
From Prisoners Fast Bound In Misery And Iron by Cholmondeley, Mary
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
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
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"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
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Our Indian friends left us to warn some more of their countrymen, of our situation, and five others arrived in the evening, bringing meat and large basketfuls of whortleberries.
From Narrative of a Second Expedition to the Shores of the Polar Sea by Franklin, John
A clutch of eggs, honey, delicious mast, God has sent it: Sweet apples, red whortleberries, And blaeberries.
From Ancient Irish Poetry by Various
Ripe blackberries and whortleberries, to be kept long, should be dried perfectly in the sun, then tied up in bags that are thick enough to exclude the air.
From The American Housewife Containing the Most Valuable and Original Receipts in all the Various Branches of Cookery; and Written in a Minute and Methodical Manner by Anonymous
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.