crowberry

American  

[kroh-ber-ee, -buh-ree] / ˈkroʊˌbɛr i, -bə ri /

noun

• crowberries
  plural

1. the black or reddish berry of a heathlike, evergreen shrub, Empetrum nigrum, of northern regions.

2. the plant itself.

3. any of certain other fruits or the plants bearing similar berries, as the bearberry.

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crowberry British  

/ ˈkrəʊbərɪ, -brɪ /

noun

1. a low-growing N temperate evergreen shrub, Empetrum nigrum, with small purplish flowers and black berry-like fruit: family Empetraceae

2. any of several similar or related plants

3. the fruit of any of these plants

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• crowberries
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of crowberry

1590–1600; crow ¹ + berry, probably translation of German Krähenbeere

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

crowberry crowberries

We walked onto a bluff padded in low-growing crowberry and Arctic thyme.

From Washington Post ● Jul. 29, 2021

Seeing a reindeer nonchalantly munching on berries and grass and a ptarmigan comfortably nestled in a patch of crowberry bushes led me to think the fire was no longer an issue.

From Washington Post ● Aug. 9, 2018

A ways down the road we found equally varied botany: dwarf willows, crowberry plants and alpine bearberry shrubs that would turn crimson in two months.

From Washington Post ● Apr. 7, 2016

The crowberry is very abundant about Fort Churchill and northward.

From A Journey from Prince of Wales's Fort in Hudson's Bay to the Northern Ocean in the Years 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772 New Edition with Introduction, Notes, and Illustrations by J. B. Tyrrell

The most luxuriant of the islands boasted only a patch of crowberry bushes or a few creeping junipers too much abashed to lift their heads a finger's length above the earth.

From The Thrall of Leif the Lucky A Story of Viking Days by Ottilie A. (Ottilia Adelina) Liljencrantz

This fall, Mr. Bang, a towering 35-year-old, is testing out crowberries, an Inuit favorite.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 7, 2017

Renn was kneeling at the mouth of the cave, trying to feed Wolf a handful of crowberries.

From "Wolf Brother" by Michelle Paver

At last he found a handful of crowberries, and gulped them down.

From "Wolf Brother" by Michelle Paver

You could see it in summer, when the land was a riot of lingonberries and crowberries and cloudberries, mixed in among the moss and tiny orchids and the reddish-purple sweet vetch.

From "Two Degrees" by Alan Gratz

The women gathered large quantities of the fruit already mentioned, called Pathagomenan, and cranberries, crowberries, mooseberries, &c.

From Voyages from Montreal Through the Continent of North America to the Frozen and Pacific Oceans in 1789 and 1793 Vol. I by Alexander Mackenzie

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