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Berry

//ˈbɛɹi// name, noun, verb, slang

Definitions

Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A surname from Middle English.
  2. 2
    A female given name from English. rare

    ""I'm Beryl Shaddock. Call me Berry," the girl said."

  3. 3
    A former province in Centre-Val de Loire region, France.
  4. 4
    A male given name transferred from the surname.

    "Beresford Conway. All my pals call me Berry."

  5. 5
    A place name:; A town in Fayette County, Alabama, United States, named after Thompson Berry.
Show 4 more definitions
  1. 6
    A place name:; A minor city in Harrison County, Kentucky, United States.
  2. 7
    A place name:; A town in Dane County, Wisconsin, United States.
  3. 8
    A place name:; A municipality in Abitibi Regional County Municipality, Quebec, Canada.
  4. 9
    A place name:; A village in the City of Shoalhaven, New South Wales, Australia, named after Alexander Berry.
Noun
  1. 1
    A small succulent fruit, of any one of many varieties.
  2. 2
    A mound; a barrow. dialectal
  3. 3
    A burrow, especially a rabbit's burrow. dialectal
  4. 4
    any of numerous small and pulpy edible fruits; used as desserts or in making jams and jellies and preserves wordnet
  5. 5
    A soft fruit which develops from a single ovary and contains seeds not encased in pits.
Show 6 more definitions
  1. 6
    An excavation; a military mine.
  2. 7
    a small fruit having any of various structures, e.g., simple (grape or blueberry) or aggregate (blackberry or raspberry) wordnet
  3. 8
    A coffee bean.
  4. 9
    One of the ova or eggs of a fish or crustacean.

    "The crabs carry their berries for six months."

  5. 10
    A police car. US, slang

    "Today was like one of those fly dreams / Didn't even see a berry flashin' those high beams"

  6. 11
    A dollar. US, dated, slang

    "Four rounds and Enright still on his feet and a hundred and fifty thousand berries gone if he stays two more!"

Verb
  1. 1
    To pick berries. intransitive

    "On summer days Grandma used to take us berrying, whether we wanted to go or not."

  2. 2
    To beat; give a beating to; thrash. transitive
  3. 3
    pick or gather berries wordnet
  4. 4
    To bear or produce berries.
  5. 5
    To thresh (grain). transitive

Etymology

Etymology 1

Etymology tree Proto-Germanic *bazją Proto-West Germanic *baʀi Old English berġe Middle English berye English berry From Middle English berye, from Old English berġe, from Proto-West Germanic *baʀi, from Proto-Germanic *bazją. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Bäie, West Flemish beier, German Beere, Icelandic ber, Danish bær. The slang sense "police car" may come from the lights on the vehicles' roofs.

Etymology 2

Etymology tree Proto-Germanic *bazją Proto-West Germanic *baʀi Old English berġe Middle English berye English berry From Middle English berye, from Old English berġe, from Proto-West Germanic *baʀi, from Proto-Germanic *bazją. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Bäie, West Flemish beier, German Beere, Icelandic ber, Danish bær. The slang sense "police car" may come from the lights on the vehicles' roofs.

Etymology 3

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”).

Etymology 4

From Middle English bery (“a burrow”). More at burrow.

Etymology 5

From Middle English beryen, berien, from Old English *berian (found only in past participle ġebered (“crushed, kneaded, harassed, oppressed, vexed”)), from Proto-West Germanic *barjan, from Proto-Germanic *barjaną (“to beat, hit”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰerH- (“to rip, cut, split, grate”). Cognate with Scots berry, barry (“to thresh, thrash”), German beren (“to beat, knead”), Icelandic berja (“to beat”), Latin feriō (“strike, hit”, verb).

Etymology 6

Variant of Bury and (in dialects with Mary-marry-merry merger) Barry. The given name is also a pet form of names beginning with Ber-.

Etymology 7

From berry; also a pet form of Beryl, Berenice, or Berinthia.

Etymology 8

From French Berry.

See also for "berry"

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