dogberry

¹ American  

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

noun

plural

dogberries

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

plural

Dogberrys

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

• dogberryism noun

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

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 Heming, Arthur Henry Howard

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

And to make matters worse, he took some dogberry cordial and it chased the catnip tea all over his interior from Alpha to Omaha.

From You Can Search Me by McHugh, Hugh

Blood will tell, so the hoarhound joined forces with the dogberry and chased the catnip up my family tree.

From You Should Worry Says John Henry by McHugh, Hugh