a foolish constable in Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing.
any foolish, blundering, or stupid official.
any of certain plants that have berry-like fruits, such as the European dogwood or the bearberry
the fruit of any of these plants
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
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 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
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
The common dogwood, prick-wood, skewer-wood, cornel or dogberry, C. sanguinea, is a shrub reaching a height of 8 or 9 ft., common in hedges, thickets and plantations in Great Britain.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 8, Slice 6 "Dodwell" to "Drama" by Various
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
"If you've ever engaged in an endeavour that made you feel you were doing something right, you felt what we were feeling," says Nathan Fillion, the star of Castle, who plays the part of Dogberry.
From The Guardian ● Jun. 2, 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
Dogberry, Verges, Watchmen with Borachio, bound, enter, and all the villainy of Don John is explained.
From Shakespeare and Music by Wilson, Christopher
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 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 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, Jerome K. (Jerome Klapka)
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
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
