strawberry

Etymology

From Middle English strawbery, strauberi, from Old English strēawberġe, corresponding to straw + berry.

noun

1. The sweet, usually red, edible fruit of certain plants of the genus Fragaria.
   They went to pick strawberries today.
2. Any plant of the genus Fragaria (that bears such fruit).
   She has the best strawberry patch I've ever seen.
   He told his father, and said it would be just suitable work for him to run about fields and woods amongst the strawberry hills after a flock of hares, and now and then lie down and take a nap on some sunny hill. 1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 170
3. A dark pinkish red colour, like that of the fruit; strawberry red.
   strawberry:
4. (rare) Something resembling a strawberry, especially a reddish bruise, birthmark, or infantile hemangioma (naevus).
5. (US, slang) A prostitute who exchanges sexual services for crack cocaine.
   […] infamous in Los Angeles through media reports: the crack houses and "strawberries" (women who exchange sex for crack) […] 1992, Kathleen Boyle, Homeless crack cocaine abusers, page 40
   The desperate addiction associated with the drug has made "strawberries" — prostitutes who work for crack — fixtures of the […] 1997, Peter Collier, David Horowitz, The Race Card, page 91

adj

1. Containing or having the flavor of strawberries.
   I'd like a large strawberry shake.
   We sing you a song of the strawberriest Strawberry Ice Cream on earth. 8 May 1941, Chicago Daily Tribune, volume C, number 110, page 8
   At any rate, you will agree with me that this is the “strawberriest tastin’ ” pie that you’ve ever tasted. 5 May 1948, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, volume 100, number 243, St. Louis, Mo., page 3D
   Sixty seconds of boiling, and you’ll be admiring the strawberriest strawberry jam you ever tasted. 1961 June, McCall’s, volume LXXXVIII, number 9, page 47
   Fraser Recorded in Scotland in mid-1100s as de Frisselle, de Freseliere, de Fresel, as if from a place in France, and Sir Simon F— (executed 1306) is referred to as Simond Frysel; first element ?‘ash tree’ of, the –er ?to make it ‘strawberrier’ – a pun on the three silver cinquefoils or fraises in their armorials. 1967, Basil Cottle, The Penguin Dictionary of Surnames, Penguin Books, published 1969, page 109
   With at least 26 berries like these in every jar like this, how must Kraft Pure Strawberry Preserves taste? The strawberriest best! 1968 March, Ladies’ Home Journal, volume LXXXV, Philadelphia, Pa.: The Curtis Publishing Company, page 122
   And your strawberry ice cream can be the strawberriest and your peach ice cream the peachiest. 1973, Glenn Andrews, Impromptu Cooking, New York, N.Y.: Atheneum, page 216
   lessons exist because frozen strawberries in store are easier to pick but wild strawberries taste strawberrier. 1975 fall, sue ellen farmer, The Student, page thirty-seven, column 2
   My strawberriest of strawberry sauces was simply strawberries, whirred until chunky in the blender, then spooned over vanilla ice cream (or, in this case, low-fat ice milk). 1978, Barbara [Halloran] Gibbons, The International Slim Gourmet Cookbook, Harper & Row, page 324
   Now Jell-O(BRAND)® Strawberry Flavor Gelatin tastes even Strawberrier. 5 June 1979, Family Circle, page 41
   When used to sweeten out-of-season California strawberries, the berries are not only sweeter but “strawberrier,” with a flavor more like home-grown or field-ripened fruit. 1982, Barbara [Halloran] Gibbons, Slim Gourmet Sweets and Treats, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Row, page 11
   Kiwi, Kiwi, chirping bright / In the forests of the night / Only a Kiwi could be merrier / About shortcake so strawberrier! 1998, Les Fox, Sue Fox, The Beanie Baby Handbook, West Highland Publishing Company, page 161
   It occurred to me when I was last making the strawberries in dark syrup from How to Eat that there was no reason why I couldn’t use the balsamic vinegar – which provides the darkness and really does seem to make the strawberries strawberrier – when making jam. 2000, Nigella Lawson, How to Be a Domestic Goddess: Baking and the Art of Comfort Cooking, London: Chatto & Windus, page 347
   It’s the strawberriest shortcake ever. 2004 May, Sunset, page 127
   Down leaped Ron and milked the frothiest, fruitiest, strawberriest milkshake anybody had ever tasted. 2005, Rowan Clifford, Rodeo Ron and His Milkshake Cows, Borzoi Books
   “The strawberriest ice cream I have ever tasted!” was the verdict of my daughter Lindsay. 2009, Annette Yates, Ice Cream Made Easy: Homemade Recipes for Ice Cream Machines, Right Way, page 39
   Mind you, I have to admit they were three of the strawberriest looking strawberries I have ever seen. 2011, Hartley Pool, Stranger in Taiwan, Revenge Ink, page 77
   It was the strawberriest strawberry ever. 2013, Caroline Green, Hold Your Breath, Piccadilly Press, page 125
   HANNAH SAYS: “Wow, these are incredibly juicy. These are the strawberriest things in the world. They’re more strawberry[-]ish than actual strawberries. They’re incredible!” 2013 January, Front, number 177, page 38
   Right now, strawberries are their strawberriest. 9 June 2022, Daniel Neman, “Strawberry spectacular”, in Hartford Courant, volume CLXXXVI, section 4, page 4, column 1
2. Flavored with ethyl methylphenylglycidate, an artificial compound which is said to resemble the taste of strawberries.
3. Of a colour similar to the colour of strawberry-flavoured products.
   The strawberry lipstick matched his outfit.
   They are, at once, beautiful and curious, with their translucent white skin and strawberriest blond hair, looking like a group of Wagner’s Valkyrie lost in a Puccini opera. 2006, Ida Liberkowski, Cynthia Malizia, Along the Amalfi Drive, Lulu.com, page 282

verb

1. (intransitive) To gather strawberries.
   We strawberried in Michigan woods with our fat nanny, and in spring we gathered sand dollars on Daytona, passed smiling into Kodachrome. 1994, New England Review, volume 16, page 35
2. (intransitive) To turn a dark pinkish-red.
   My hips and elbows were strawberrying painfully. 1986, Les Whitten, Sometimes a Hero, page 352