berry

Etymology 1

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.

noun

1. A small succulent fruit, of any one of many varieties.
2. (botany) A soft fruit which develops from a single ovary and contains seeds not encased in pits.
3. A coffee bean.
4. One of the ova or eggs of a fish or crustacean.
   The crabs carry their berries for six months. 1877, Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons, Parliamentary Papers - Volume 24, page 7
   That is the only restriction existing: not even small fish or fish in berry, and there are no restrictions on soft-shelled fish. 1913, Journals and Printed Papers of the Parliament of Tasmania, page 94
   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. 1914, Cape of Good Hope (South Africa). Provincial Council, Minutes and Ordinances - Volume 5, page 3
   The corals have the shape of a shrub and are green. Their berries are snow-white under water and soft. As soon as you take them out of the water, they grow hard and red. 1960, Friedrich Simon Bodenheimer, Animal and Man in Bible Lands: Supplement, page 86
   McCormick (1934) stated that eggs in various stages of development were found in females at the same time that they were in berry, which indicates a long egg-laying season. 1965, Fishery Bulletin of the Fish and Wildlife Service - Volume 65, page 55
5. (slang, US, African-American English) A police car.
6. (US, slang, dated) A dollar.
   Four rounds and Enright still on his feet and a hundred and fifty thousand berries gone if he stays two more! 1921, Collier's, volume 67, page 365

verb

1. To 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 see how well we could coordinate our efforts... 1988, Early American Life, page 35
2. To bear or produce berries.

Etymology 2

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.

noun

1. (now chiefly dialectal) A mound; a barrow.

Etymology 3

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

noun

1. (dialectal) A burrow, especially a rabbit's burrow.
2. An excavation; a military mine.

Etymology 4

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).

verb

1. (transitive) To beat; give a beating to; thrash.
2. (transitive) To thresh (grain).