GOOSEBERRY

Pronunciation (US):

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does gooseberry mean? 

• GOOSEBERRY (noun)
  The noun GOOSEBERRY has 2 senses:

1. spiny Eurasian shrub having greenish purple-tinged flowers and ovoid yellow-green or red-purple berries

2. currant-like berry used primarily in jams and jellies

  Familiarity information: GOOSEBERRY used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• GOOSEBERRY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Spiny Eurasian shrub having greenish purple-tinged flowers and ovoid yellow-green or red-purple berries

Classified under:

Nouns denoting plants

Synonyms:

gooseberry; gooseberry bush; Ribes grossularia; Ribes uva-crispa

Hypernyms ("gooseberry" is a kind of...):

bush; shrub (a low woody perennial plant usually having several major stems)

Meronyms (parts of "gooseberry"):

gooseberry (currant-like berry used primarily in jams and jellies)

Holonyms ("gooseberry" is a member of...):

genus Ribes; Ribes (a flowering shrub bearing currants or gooseberries; native to northern hemisphere)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Currant-like berry used primarily in jams and jellies

Classified under:

Nouns denoting foods and drinks

Hypernyms ("gooseberry" is a kind of...):

currant (any of several tart red or black berries used primarily for jellies and jams)

Holonyms ("gooseberry" is a part of...):

gooseberry; gooseberry bush; Ribes grossularia; Ribes uva-crispa (spiny Eurasian shrub having greenish purple-tinged flowers and ovoid yellow-green or red-purple berries)

 Context examples 

It seems but yesterday to me, John, when you were a little creature, a head shorter than Master Copperfield, making baby love to Annie behind the gooseberry bushes in the back-garden.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Having finished my task of gooseberry picking, I asked where the two ladies and their brother were now.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

In vain were the well-meant condescensions of Sir Thomas, and all the officious prognostications of Mrs. Norris that she would be a good girl; in vain did Lady Bertram smile and make her sit on the sofa with herself and pug, and vain was even the sight of a gooseberry tart towards giving her comfort; she could scarcely swallow two mouthfuls before tears interrupted her, and sleep seeming to be her likeliest friend, she was taken to finish her sorrows in bed.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

"I have kept myself; and, I trust, shall keep myself again. What are you going to do with these gooseberries?"

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Now I am in the garden at the back, beyond the yard where the empty pigeon-house and dog-kennel are—a very preserve of butterflies, as I remember it, with a high fence, and a gate and padlock; where the fruit clusters on the trees, riper and richer than fruit has ever been since, in any other garden, and where my mother gathers some in a basket, while I stand by, bolting furtive gooseberries, and trying to look unmoved.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)