berry
berry—a small, round, juicy fruit, typically with seeds and soft flesh, growing on certain plants
From Middle English berȝe, berghe, from Old English beorġe, dative form of beorg (“mountain, hill, mound, barrow”), from Proto-West Germanic *berg, from Proto-Germanic *bergaz (“mountain, hill”). More at barrow. Cognates Cognate with Scots burrow (“mound, tumulus, barrow”), North Frisian Bārig, beerch, beeri, beerj, berag, berig, berri, bärj (“mountain”), Saterland Frisian Bierich, Bíerig, Bäirch (“mountain”), West Frisian berch (“mountain”), Cimbrian pèrge (“mountain”), Dutch berg (“mountain”), German Berg (“mountain”), German Low German Barg (“mountain”), Limburgish berg, Bärrech (“hill, mountain”), Luxembourgish Bierg (“mountain”), Mòcheno pèrg (“mountain”), Yiddish באַרג (barg, “mountain”), Danish bjerg (“mountain”), Faroese berg, bjarg (“cliff”), bjørg (“cliffs”), Icelandic, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish berg (“mountain”); also Northern Luri برگ (berg, “mountain”), Polish brzeg (“bank, shore”), Russian бе́рег (béreg, “bank, shore”).
- A small succulent fruit, of any one of many varieties.
- A soft fruit which develops from a single ovary and contains seeds not encased in pits.
- A coffee bean.
- One of the ova or eggs of a fish or crustacean.“The crabs carry their berries for six months.”“That is the only restriction existing: not even small fish or fish in berry, and there are no restrictions on soft-shelled fish.”“These crawfish are speared by the Kafirs, who bring them in to the village for sale, and who catch anything and everything either female fish in berry, or male fish in soft shell.”
- US, slangA police car.“Today was like one of those fly dreams / Didn't even see a berry flashin' those high beams”
- US, dated, slangA dollar.“Four rounds and Enright still on his feet and a hundred and fifty thousand berries gone if he stays two more!”
- dialectalA mound; a barrow.
- dialectalA burrow, especially a rabbit's burrow.
- An excavation; a military mine.
- intransitiveTo pick berries.“On summer days Grandma used to take us berrying, whether we wanted to go or not.”“Partly because I always itched and prickled in a berry patch I may have been disinclined to nibble as I worked; but largely I think it was because I berried under a master strategist and I wanted to s”
- To bear or produce berries.
- transitiveTo beat; give a beating to; thrash.
- transitiveTo thresh (grain).
- A surname from Middle English.
- A male given name transferred from the surname.“Beresford Conway. All my pals call me Berry.”“Since my father's name was Berry Gordy, he named me Berry Gordy. There's no middle name.”
- A town in Fayette County, Alabama, United States, named after Thompson Berry.
- A minor city in Harrison County, Kentucky, United States.
- A town in Dane County, Wisconsin, United States.
- A municipality in Abitibi Regional County Municipality, Quebec, Canada.
- A village in the City of Shoalhaven, New South Wales, Australia, named after Alexander Berry.
- rareA female given name from English.“"I'm Beryl Shaddock. Call me Berry," the girl said.”“"What's with your dad calling you 'Berry' anyway? What kind of name is 'Berry'?" "Oh, it's short for Huckleberry," she replied, as if that explained everything.”
- A former province in Centre-Val de Loire region, France.