crowberry

American  

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

noun

plural

crowberries

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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Etymology

Origin of crowberry

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

Example Sentences

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

There was thick brushwood of phylica, of fern and crowberry all round, and, tired as we were, I felt we could not make our way through this.

From Three Years in Tristan da Cunha by Barrow, Katherine Mary

There he paused a moment, to look over the island, treeless save for dwarf willows six inches high and a ground-dwelling form of crowberry.

From The Boy With the U. S. Fisheries by Rolt-Wheeler, Francis