sloe
Americannoun
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the small, sour, blackish fruit of the blackthorn, Prunus spinosa, of the rose family.
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the shrub itself.
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any of various other plants of the genus Prunus, as a shrub or small tree, P. alleghaniensis, bearing dark-purple fruit.
noun
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the small sour blue-black fruit of the blackthorn
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another name for blackthorn
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of sloe
before 900; Middle English slo, Old English slā ( h ); cognate with German Schlehe, Dutch slee
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:
Their plum-like, inky blue-purple sloe berries became synonymous with the English countryside.
From Washington Times ● Jan. 1, 2024
It’s a wonderfully economic performance, all slouch and sloe eyes, offering a moral thermometer of the fallen world through which Raylan moves via Olyphant’s sly repertoire of expressions: grin, smirk, smile, hard stare, blank bemusement.
From New York Times ● Jul. 17, 2023
Right now, I’m in a park, surrounded by new white sloe blossom, listening to Eden and trying not to let anyone see the faces I’m pulling.
From The Guardian ● Feb. 26, 2019
It is believed that Suffolk Pink dates back to the 14th Century and other natural ingredients such as elderberries, blackthorn or sloe juice were also added to create the colour.
From BBC ● Jan. 12, 2018
There was a hint of spring in her sloe green eyes, something summery in her complexion, and a rich autumn ripeness in her walk.
From "The Bluest Eye" by Toni Morrison
This applies to lots of fruits that are the same colour including damsons, sloes and juniper berries.
From Science Daily ● Feb. 7, 2024
When you forage for sloes, Horning says, feel the berries for ripeness, but also look for a yeast powder on the berry’s core, “a telltale sign that the fruit’s ripe.”
From Washington Times ● Jan. 1, 2024
Ripening hedge fruits include sloes, hips and haws; it has been a splendid year for acorns, and among the myriad autumn fungi, look out for ceps, or penny-buns as they are sometimes known.
From The Guardian ● Oct. 3, 2020
She had to entice him, as she had enticed the child in bygone days, the sweet little child with the eyes like sloes that was to run from the chair to the next halting-place.
From The Son of His Mother by Viebig, Clara
And such wonderfully pretty girls, my dear Augusta, with eyes like sloes and skins like the petals of their own magnolia-blossoms.
From Lippincott's Magazine, September, 1885 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.
