bramble

See also: Bramble

English

Flowering bramble

Etymology

From Middle English brembel, from Old English bræmbel, from earlier brǣmel, brēmel, from dialectal Proto-West Germanic *brāmil, diminutive of *brām (English broom).

Pronunciation

Audio (US) (file)
IPA^(key): /ˈbɹæmbəl/
Rhymes: -æmbəl

Noun

bramble (plural brambles)

Any of many closely related thorny plants in the genus Rubus including the blackberry and likely not including the raspberry proper.
- 1944, Miles Burton, chapter 5, in The Three Corpse Trick:
  The hovel stood in the centre of what had once been a vegetable garden, but was now a patch of rank weeds. Surrounding this, almost like a zareba, was an irregular ring of gorse and brambles, an unclaimed vestige of the original common.
- 2016, Ann Burnett, Take a Leaf Out of My Book (page 37)
  Jeanette is making bramble jelly. She is trying to listen to the Morning Story on Radio 4 while she goes about her task. Jeanette's brow is furrowed as she weighs the deep purple fruit and tips the berries into the heavy jelly pan […]
- 1975, Bertrand Russell, chapter 1, in Autobiography:
  A similar instinct for self-preservation was the cause of my first lie. My governess left me alone for half an hour with strict instructions to eat no blackberries during her absence. When she returned I was suspiciously near the brambles. ‘You have been eating blackberries’, she said. ‘I have not’, I replied. ‘Put out your tongue!’ she said. Shame overwhelmed me, and I felt utterly wicked.
Any thorny shrub.
A cocktail of gin, lemon juice, and blackberry liqueur.
(chiefly Scotland) The soft fruit borne by the species Rubus fruticosus formed of a black (when ripe) cluster of drupelets.
Synonyms: blackberry, brambleberry

Derived terms

brambled
bramble net
bramble shark
brambling
brambly
mountain bramble
stone bramble

Translations

diverse Rubus shrubs — see blackberry

any thorny shrub — see thornbush