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
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
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
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 Noad, Joseph
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
Brooks Atkinson wrote in The New York Times, “Mr. Rose’s Dogberry makes it unnecessary for anyone to play the part again.”
From New York Times ● Feb. 7, 2017
Mr. Jones fares less well with the ripe comic subplot in the original, concerning the bumbling constable Dogberry and his associate Verges.
From New York Times ● Dec. 15, 2015
Start with this quote from Dogberry in Much Ado About Nothing: “Remember that I am an ass.”
From Slate ● Dec. 20, 2013
JM: Comparisons are odorous, as Dogberry says, so I'm not going to measure the blessed Jane against each one of your competitors.
From The Guardian ● Jun. 29, 2013
‘What have you, Sir Harry, to say to all this?’ asked the Dogberry of St. Anne.
From A History of the Cries of London Ancient and Modern by Hindley, Charles
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 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 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.
