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
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 Friedrich Christian Accum
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
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
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
Start with this quote from Dogberry in Much Ado About Nothing: “Remember that I am an ass.”
From Slate ● Dec. 20, 2013
But any version of this play stands or falls by its Dogberry, the bumbling constable whose logical and verbal pratfalls are their own kind of wisdom.
From New York Times ● Jun. 6, 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
Yes, Paul Hunter’s Dogberry could shed a tic or two and Ewan Stewart’s Don Pedro, the abiding trickster, takes less vibrant command of that part than does Adam James across the Thames.
From New York Times ● Jun. 7, 2011
It is not without significance that the deep-laid plot should be defeated through the agency of the immortal Dogberry, most deliciously foolish of constables.
From An Introduction to Shakespeare by H. N. MacCracken
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
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.
