bramble

American  

[bram-buhl] / ˈbræm bəl /

noun

1. any prickly shrub belonging to the genus Rubus, of the rose family.

2. British. the common blackberry.

3. any rough, prickly shrub, as the dog rose.

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verb (used without object)

• brambles,
  present (3rd person singular)
• brambled,
  past participle,  past
• brambling
  present participle

1. British. to look for and gather wild blackberries; pick blackberries from the vine.

bramble British  

/ ˈbræmbəl /

noun

1. any of various prickly herbaceous plants or shrubs of the rosaceous genus Rubus , esp the blackberry See also stone bramble

2. 1. a blackberry

   2. ( as modifier )

      bramble jelly

3. any of several similar and related shrubs

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verb

1. to gather blackberries

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• brambly
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Participles

• brambling
  present
• brambled
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• bramble
  simple
• brambles
  simple
• have brambled
  perfect
• has brambled
  perfect
• am brambling
  progressive
• are brambling
  progressive
• is brambling
  progressive
• have been brambling
  perfect progressive
• has been brambling
  perfect progressive

Past

• brambled
  simple
• had brambled
  perfect
• was brambling
  progressive
• were brambling
  progressive
• had been brambling
  perfect progressive

Future

• will bramble
  simple
• will have brambled
  perfect
• will be brambling
  progressive
• will have been brambling
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of bramble

before 1000; Middle English; Old English bræmbel, variant of brǣmel, equivalent to brǣm- (cognate with Dutch braam broom ) + -el noun suffix

Explanation

A bramble is a bush or plant that's covered in thorns. You'll want to wear long pants if you're going to trek through the brambles looking for your lost cat. Those rough, prickly shrubs that grow along the fence and in which you're always losing your Frisbee? You can call them brambles. This word is most common in Britain, where it sometimes refers specifically to blackberry bushes. In fact, some Britons even call blackberries themselves "brambleberries." The Old English root is bræmbel.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

bramble brambles brambled brambling

For long stretches, Fish and I walked in the bike lane, or in the bramble by the side of the road.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 25, 2026

Modern screenwriting contracts, and who gets what credit, are already a bramble that the guild often has to step in and sort out.

From Seattle Times ● Jul. 21, 2023

First are light bites like venison tartare flecked with pickled garlic buds and served with bramble purée, and a seaweed “cornetto” filled with salmon belly tartare and salmon mousse.

From New York Times ● Jul. 4, 2023

Transforming the bramble patch at the end of the garden into John's home has brought Bill a friend, community and a new job.

From BBC ● Feb. 12, 2023

Just like when a bee stung Sounder under the porch or a brier caught his ear in the bramble, the boy thought.

From "Sounder" by William H. Armstrong

Zookeepers then pivot to old-fashioned tracking, braving thickets of brambles and stinging nettles in search of footprints.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 14, 2026

While trimming back Valerie's hedges and clearing brambles, the 24-year-old spotted a rusted, 50cm device that looked "almost like a mortar stood up on its tail".

From BBC ● May 28, 2026

We passed by apple, nectarine and pear trees, then blackberry brambles as large as a football field.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 16, 2024

Meanwhile, in nearby pastures and olive groves, the buildup of grasses, brush, and brambles was kept under control through a combination of livestock grazing, manual brush cutting, and occasional managed burning.

From Science Daily ● Apr. 26, 2024

Already the men were over the bank and the torchlight was flickering up and down the hedgerow and through the brambles above their very heads.

From "Watership Down: A Novel" by Richard Adams

That face — all determination and brambled beard — still fronts much of the league’s promotional material, including its “Don’t Cross the Line” campaign, which is aimed at improving fans’ behaviour.

From The Guardian ● Apr. 17, 2017

Over the brambled wall we saw cows lying down in a pasture.

From Penguin Persons & Peppermints by Walter Prichard Eaton

The road back to Nature is full of her own secrets, and few who have trod the streets of the city remember the brambled return, or care.

From Every Soul Hath Its Song by Fannie Hurst

For their crane had been left in a brambled hole, and they very soon rigged it out again.

From Mary Anerley : a Yorkshire Tale by R. D. (Richard Doddridge) Blackmore

Or, bowling peacefully upon my bike, Well breakfasted, by no distractions flustered, Pause near a leafy copse or brambled dyke, And answer song for song the black-backed shrike, The curlew and the bustard.

From Punch or the London Charivari, Volume 158, March 24, 1920. by Various

Your account of the greater brambling, or snow-fleck, is very amusing; and strange it is that such a short-winged bird should delight in such perilous voyages over the northern ocean. 

From The Natural History of Selborne, Vol. 1 by Henry Morley

Your account of the greater brambling, or snow-fleck, is very amusing; and strange it is that such a short-winged bird should delight in such perilous voyages over the northern ocean!

From The Natural History of Selborne by Gilbert White