blackberry

plural blackberries

1. A fruit-bearing shrub of the aggregate species Rubus fruticosus and some hybrids.

   Synonyms: bramble, brambleberry

2. The soft fruit borne by this shrub, formed of a black (when ripe) cluster of drupelets.

   Here at the creek, a ways off from the trail, we have blackberries for now, not as fat and sweet as they get, but I like them tart, with that little bit of red still at their tops, or if they’re just a little hard and not so soft they come off when you pull at them and leave your fingers stained.

   2024, Tommy Orange, Wandering Stars, Harvill Secker, page 79

   Synonyms: bramble, brambleberry

3. broadlyinformalAny Rubus berry that is black or blackish; the plant that produces it.
4. UKdialectalThe blackcurrant.

present singular third person blackberries · participle present blackberrying · participle past blackberried · past blackberried

1. To gather or forage for blackberries.

   She had gone up into the tower alone and left them blackberrying in the sun

   1925, Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway

   4 more examples

   My mother and Cordelia were blackberrying along the woods edge of a nearby meadow.

   1977, Howard Frank Mosher, Disappearances, Mariner Books, published 2006, →ISBN, page 111

   Thereafter we blackberried unceasingly and returned with a large basketful, together with some maggoty windfall apples found neglected in the wet grass on the edge of an orchard and Mrs Clare duly stewed these for us.

   1988, Arthur Bryson Gerrard, Butterflies & coalsmoke, page 62

   My wife and children were blackberrying at the end of the garden and I was simply reading.

   2001, Thomas Keneally, Victim of the Aurora, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, published 2001, →ISBN, page 72

   Another instance of someone who is blackberrying and sees fairies can be found at Kingheriot Farm (South-West Wales: Pembrokeshire): maybe gathering berries puts the percipient into a relaxed or dissociated frame of mind, more conducive to being able to see things that one would perhaps not normally be able to see.

   2004, Janet Bord, The Traveller's Guide to Fairy Sites: The Landscape and Folklore of Fairyland In England, Wales And Scotland, Gothic Image, published 2004, →ISBN, page 48

plural BlackBerrys · plural BlackBerries

1. A wireless handheld device, a cross between a cellphone and a mobile email appliance and Internet-capable PDA, marketed by BlackBerry Limited.

   Thugga and the rest of the group communicated using BlackBerrys set up so that messages would automatically delete after 48 hours.

   2023, David White, Angus Gillies, “All roads lead north”, in Far North, Echo Publishing, →ISBN

   3 more examples

   Knowing that DA, Inc. was using BlackBerrys, the CEO of the competition hired an underground hacker to come up with a way to thwart the competition.

   2007, Daniel Hoffman, Blackjacking: Security Threats to BlackBerry® Devices, PDAs, and Cell Phones in the Enterprise, Wiley Publishing, Inc., →ISBN, page 49

   A few days ago, I took a walk with my wife and did not take my BlackBerry! That's progress. Of course, I reached into my empty pockets six or seven times, so clearly I have a long way to go.

   2007 November, Gil Schwartz, “Escape from the job monster”, in Men's Health, volume 22, number 9, →ISSN, page 120

   Posers using BlackBerrys on the button lift can be pretty irritating, but I bet it gives a lot of pleasure whenever an unfortunate captain of industry drops his vital little device in the snow.

   2014, John Timpson, Ask John: Straight-Talking, Common Sense from the Front Line of Management, Icon Books, →ISBN

present singular third person BlackBerries · participle present BlackBerrying · participle past BlackBerried · past BlackBerried

1. To send a text message or e-mail with a BlackBerry device.

   But Revenue Commissioner Pat Galvin told me she was well known for BlackBerrying during face-to-face meetings.

   2012, Matthew Zencey, Unlikely Liberal: Sarah Palin's Curious Record as Alaska's Governor, Potomac Books, published 2012, →ISBN, page 144

   2 more examples

   "I BlackBerried a sort of risque joke message to this friend of mine — it was totally a joke — but, um, I accidentally sent it to two hundred strangers. […]

   2007, Kristin Gore, Sammy's Hill, Miramax Books, published 2007, →ISBN, page 219

   We've interviewed female entrepreneurs who say they were BlackBerrying up into the final stages of labor; […]

   2009, Colleen DeBaise, The Wall Street Journal: Complete Small Business Guidebook, Three Rivers Press, published 2009, →ISBN, page 205