Meanings
dogberry1
Dogberry2
plural Dogberries
- A pompous, foolish or self-important official.First known use 19th c.
1 more example
It would be interesting to know how many village Dogberries there were like Thomas Law, the constable of Quendon, Essex, whose reaction in 1651 on being informed of a robbery was to call on the astrologer, William Hills, ‘with an intent to hear what he might say, so that he might make his search accordingly’.
1971, Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, Folio Society, published 2012, page 333
Synonyms & antonyms
Origin
dogberry · noun
See dogwood and berry. Compare also dog rose. Compare German Hundbeere (“bittersweet”), Ancient Greek κυνόσβατος (kunósbatos, “evergreen rose”), Lithuanian šùnobelė (“buckthorn”), Italian mela canina (“mandrake”).
Full word history & related roots →Dogberry · noun
From Dogberry, the name of a character in Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing (1600).
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Polish dereń
- dereńthe berry of the dogwood
Russian кизи́л
- кизи́л (kizíl)the berry of the dogwood
Cite this entry
dogberry. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/dogberry
“dogberry.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/dogberry. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “dogberry,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/dogberry.
Source: dogberry on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.