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
1 American
[dawg-ber-ee, -buh-ree, dog-]
/ ˈdɔgˌbɛr i, -bə ri, ˈdɒg- /
Dogberry
2
American
[dawg-ber-ee, -buh-ree, dog-]
/ ˈdɔgˌbɛr i, -bə ri, ˈdɒg- /
noun
-
Dogberrys
plural
-
a foolish constable in Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing.
-
any foolish, blundering, or stupid official.
dogberry
1
British
/ ˈdɒɡˌbɛrɪ, -brɪ, -bərɪ /
noun
-
any of certain plants that have berry-like fruits, such as the European dogwood or the bearberry
-
the fruit of any of these plants
dogberry
2
British
/ ˈdɒɡˌbɛrɪ, -brɪ, -bərɪ /
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of dogberry
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
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
No wonder that the insipid little berries. related to apples, pears, and other luscious fruits, should share with a cousin, the mountain ash, or rowan, the reproachful name of dogberry.
From Wild Flowers An Aid to Knowledge of Our Wild Flowers and Their Insect Visitors by Neltje Blanchan
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
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
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
In the middle of Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s suite of incidental music for “Much Ado About Nothing,” there’s a march meant to accompany Dogberry, Shakespeare’s comic constable, and his fellow watchmen.
From New York Times ● Apr. 14, 2024
The potentially tiresome character of the constable Dogberry is reconceived as a malaprop-prone American filmmaker who goes by the name Dog Berry.
From New York Times ● Aug. 24, 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
The duty of “The Compleat Constable” was, in the words of Dogberry, to “comprehend all vagrom men” and he was liable to a fine of ten shillings for every neglect.
From The Law and the Poor by Edward Abbott Parry
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
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
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
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
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
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