hackberry

[ hak-ber-ee, -buh-ree ]

noun,plural hack·ber·ries.
  1. any of several trees or shrubs belonging to the genus Celtis, of the elm family, bearing cherrylike fruit.

  2. the sometimes edible fruit of such a tree.

  1. the wood of such a tree.

Origin of hackberry

1
1775–85, Americanism; variant of hagberry (of Scandinavian origin)

Words Nearby hackberry

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use hackberry in a sentence

  • On a cool, canvas-covered cot in the shade of the hackberry trees Sam Galloway passed the greater part of his time.

    Sixes and Sevens | O. Henry
  • That evening Sam and old man Ellison dragged their chairs out under the hackberry trees.

    Sixes and Sevens | O. Henry
  • His ranch was a little two-room box house in a grove of hackberry trees in the lonesomest part of the sheep country.

    Sixes and Sevens | O. Henry
  • His guitar hung by its buckskin string to a hackberry limb, moaning as the gulf breeze blew across its masterless strings.

    Sixes and Sevens | O. Henry
  • The hackberry is infested by large numbers of species of Psyllids, and these produce a great variety of interesting galls.

British Dictionary definitions for hackberry

hackberry

/ (ˈhækˌbɛrɪ) /


nounplural -ries
  1. any American tree or shrub of the ulmaceous genus Celtis, having edible cherry-like fruits

  2. the fruit or soft yellowish wood of such a tree

Origin of hackberry

1
C18: variant of C16 hagberry, of Scandinavian origin; compare Old Norse heggr hackberry

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012