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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  

/ ˈdɒɡˌbɛrɪ, -brɪ, -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  

/ ˈdɒɡˌbɛrɪ, -brɪ, -bərɪ /

noun

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

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• dogberryism
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• Dogberrys
  plural
• dogberries
  plural

Etymology

Origin of dogberry

First recorded in 1545–55; dog + berry

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

dogberry Dogberry Dogberrys dogberries

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

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 Hugh McHugh

In the evening, as they entered a little thicket of dogberry bushes growing in low land, a small brown shadow flitted across their path.

From The Outcasts by Arthur Henry Howard Heming

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 Joseph Noad

This abuse may be discovered by opening the berries: those of buckthorn have almost always four seeds; of the alder, two; and of the dogberry, only one.

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 Friedrich Christian Accum

Brooks Atkinson wrote in The New York Times, “Mr. Rose’s Dogberry makes it unnecessary for anyone to play the part again.”

From New York Times ● Feb. 7, 2017

Start with this quote from Dogberry in Much Ado About Nothing: “Remember that I am an ass.”

From Slate ● Dec. 20, 2013

JM: Comparisons are odorous, as Dogberry says, so I'm not going to measure the blessed Jane against each one of your competitors.

From The Guardian ● Jun. 29, 2013

As annoyingly addled constable Dogberry, John Christopher Jones is quite a scene-stealer, even when John Keating is lurking onstage in his inimitably goofy way.

From Seattle Times ● Feb. 20, 2013

We would not have Dogberry put off the watch to give place to some one who could pass the civil service examination.

From The Gentle Reader by Samuel McChord Crothers

The officers then chosen were Town-Clerks, Assessors, Collectors, and Pathmasters—all of them under the authority and jurisdiction of their Worships, the military and dilapidated Dogberrys in General Quarter Sessions assembled.

From The Last Laird of MacNab An Episode in the Settlement of MacNab Township, Upper Canada by Various

The Dogberrys too are as wise as their ‘illustrious predecessor,’ and are quite as profuse of advice to ‘the plaintiffs’ who fall into their hands.

From The Knickerbocker, or New-York Monthly Magazine, February 1844 Volume 23, Number 2 by Various

In every old-fashioned town there are models for new Dogberrys and Edie Ochiltrees; our seaports have plenty of Bunsbys; every great city has its Becky Sharpe and Major Pendennis.

From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 04, No. 23, September, 1859 by Various

The local Dogberrys of the tribunals would fire off their little stock of gibes and platitudes upon him, propound with owlish solemnity the new Christianity, abuse him and condemn him, without listening to him. 

From All Roads Lead to Calvary by Jerome K. (Jerome Klapka) Jerome

At present, the fights are between the apple-women and the dogberries, respecting the legal tenure of stalls: "Bess Hoy first found it troublesome to bawl, And therefore plac'd her cherries on a stall."

From The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction Volume 14, No. 397, November 7, 1829 by Various