Crowberry
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 Empetrum; a small genus of dwarf evergreen shrubs that bear edible fruit.
- 2 a low evergreen shrub with small purple flowers and black berrylike fruit wordnet
- 3 Empetrum; a small genus of dwarf evergreen shrubs that bear edible fruit.; Empetrum nigrum; a species of crowberry.
"Black crowberry. Empetrum nigrum. Crowberry Family. Fruit. — The black drupe is berrylike, globular, and incloses six to nine seedlike nutlets with a seed in each. The calyx is at the base and the stigma is at the apex. The drupes are solitary in the leaf axils. They are juicy, acid, edible, and serve as food for the Arctic birds."
- 4 A fruit of this plant.
Example
More examples"Crowberry is a low growing, evergreen shrub."
Etymology
From crow + berry; probably a calque of German Krähenbeere. Apparently so-called due to birds' fondness for the fruit. Yet the dark color (compare Old Norse blár (“blue-black, like a raven's sheen”)) may be the main or another factor; compare Inuktitut paurngaq (“crowberry”) (allegedly meaning "which looks like soot").
Related phrases
More for "crowberry"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.