hackberry
Americannoun
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any of several trees or shrubs belonging to the genus Celtis, of the elm family, bearing cherrylike fruit.
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the sometimes edible fruit of such a tree.
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the wood of such a tree.
noun
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any American tree or shrub of the ulmaceous genus Celtis, having edible cherry-like fruits
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the fruit or soft yellowish wood of such a tree
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of hackberry
1775–85, variant of hagberry (of Scandinavian origin)
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:
Over three decades, neighborhood foresters have transformed Dunbar Spring’s bald curbsides into lush forests of mesquite, hackberry, cholla and prickly pear cactus and more—all plants that have edible parts.
From Salon ● Jan. 29, 2024
Here grow maple, oak, hickory, cottonwood, sycamore, river birch, hackberry, fronds bowed under climbing English ivy, with winter creeper spreading underfoot.
From New York Times ● Nov. 9, 2023
He gestured to a row of freshly planted hackberry trees in the old parking lane.
From Slate ● Mar. 30, 2023
Ms. Brown urged residents concerned about the caterpillars stripping their hackberry and pecan trees of leaves not to worry.
From Washington Times ● Oct. 8, 2022
A barking red squirrel, glued to the side of a hackberry tree, kept time to the music with the beat of his tail.
From "Where the Red Fern Grows" by Wilson Rawls
In Staten Island and eastern Queens, including Elmhurst and Laurelton, we’ll plant hackberries and junipers.
From New York Times ● Apr. 22, 2022
They stalked deer as the animals drank from an ancient lake and gathered hackberries and nuts from chestnut and walnut trees lining nearby rivers.
From Science Magazine ● Nov. 22, 2016
There were likewise near-by excursions for hickory nuts, walnuts, hazelnuts, grapes, pawpaws, honey locusts, hackberries, huckleberries, blackberries, dewberries, and raspberries.
From Stories of Old Kentucky by Purcell, Martha Grassham
Fifty or sixty tropical and temperate-zone species of hackberries include two North American trees which have considerable value for shade and ornamental planting.
From Trees Worth Knowing by Rogers, Julia Ellen
They left the island behind, and soon White Bear saw the hundred lodges of Saukenuk through the weeping willows, hackberries, maples and oaks that grew along the riverbank.
From Shaman by Shea, Robert
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.
