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• dogberry
  dogberry

  noun

  the berry or fruit of any of various plants, as the European dogwood, Cornus sanguinea, the chokeberry, Aronia arbutifolia, or the mountain ash, Sorbus americana.
• Dogberry
  Dogberry

  noun

  a foolish constable in Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing.

dogberry

¹ American  

[dawg-ber-ee, -buh-ree, dog-] / ˈdɔgˌbɛr i, -bə ri, ˈdɒg- /

noun

dogberries plural

1. the berry or fruit of any of various plants, as the European dogwood, Cornus sanguinea, the chokeberry, Aronia arbutifolia, or the mountain ash, Sorbus americana.

2. the plant itself.

3. any of several plants, especially the dog rose, bearberry, and guelder rose.

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Dogberry ² American  

[dawg-ber-ee, -buh-ree, dog-] / ˈdɔgˌbɛr i, -bə ri, ˈdɒg- /

noun

Dogberrys plural

1. a foolish constable in Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing.

2. any foolish, blundering, or stupid official.

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dogberry ¹ British  

/ -brɪ, ˈdɒɡˌbɛrɪ, -bərɪ /

noun

1. any of certain plants that have berry-like fruits, such as the European dogwood or the bearberry

2. the fruit of any of these plants

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dogberry ² British  

/ -brɪ, -bərɪ, ˈdɒɡˌbɛrɪ /

noun

1. (sometimes capital) a foolish, meddling, and usually old official

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• dogberryism
  noun

Inflected Forms

noun

• Dogberrys
  plural
• dogberries
  plural

Etymology

Origin of dogberry

First recorded in 1545–55; dog + berry

Example Sentences

The returning midwife, angry at Alyce for ignoring her earlier, set her to do all the least pleasant chores: roasting frogs’ livers, boiling snails into jelly, stripping the thorns from dogberry roses.

From "The Midwife's Apprentice" by Karen Cushman

Then Peaches, being a student of natural157 history, insisted that I take some hoarhound, I suppose to bite the dogberry, but it didn't.

From You Should Worry Says John Henry by McHugh, Hugh

A mixture of the berries of the buckthorn and blackberry bearing alder, and of the dogberry tree, may be seen publicly exposed for sale by some of the venders of medicinal herbs.

From A Treatise on Adulterations of Food, and Culinary Poisons Exhibiting the Fraudulent Sophistications of Bread, Beer, Wine, Spiritous Liquors, Tea, Coffee, Cream, Confectionery, Vinegar, Mustard, Pepper, Cheese, Olive Oil, Pickles, and Other Articles Employed in Domestic Economy by Accum, Friedrich Christian

Of their remedies for disease, the following were those the most frequently resorted to:— For pains in the stomach, a decoction of the rind of the dogberry was drank.

From Lecture on the Aborigines of Newfoundland Delivered Before the Mechanics' Institute, at St. John's, Newfoundland, on Monday, 17th January, 1859 by Noad, Joseph

To make matters worse I drank some dogberry cordial and it chased the catnip tea all over my concourse.

From You Should Worry Says John Henry by McHugh, Hugh