gooseberry

• POS: Noun
• HYPHEN: goose=ber=ry

CIDE DICTIONARY

gooseberry, n. [Corrupted for groseberry or groiseberry, fr. OF. groisele, F. groseille, -- of German origin; cf. G. krausbeere, kräuselbeere (fr. kraus crisp), D. kruisbes, kruisbezie (as if crossberry, fr. kruis cross; for kroesbes, kroesbezie, fr. kroes crisp), Sw. krusbär (fr. krus, krusing, crisp). The first part of the word is perh. akin to E. curl. Cf. Grossular, a.].

•  Any thorny shrub of the genus Ribes; also, the edible berries of such shrub. There are several species, of which Ribes Grossularia is the one commonly cultivated.  [1913 Webster]
•  A silly person; a goose cap.  Goldsmith.  [1913 Webster]

Barbadoes gooseberry, a climbing prickly shrub (Pereskia aculeata) of the West Indies, which bears edible berries resembling gooseberries. -- Coromandel gooseberry. See Carambola. -- Gooseberry fool. See 1st Fool. -- Gooseberry worm (Zoöl.), the larva of a small moth (Dakruma convolutella). It destroys the gooseberry by eating the interior.

OXFORD DICTIONARY

gooseberry, n. (pl. -ies)
1 a round edible yellowish-green berry with a thin usu. translucent skin enclosing seeds in a juicy flesh.
2 the thorny shrub, Ribes grossularia, bearing this fruit.

Idiom

play gooseberry Brit. colloq. be an unwanted extra (usu. third) person.

Etymology

perh. f. GOOSE + BERRY

ROGET THESAURUS

gooseberry

Exaggeration

N exaggeration, expansion, hyperbole, stretch, strain, coloring, high coloring, caricature, caricatura, extravagance, Baron Munchausen, men in buckram, yarn, fringe, embroidery, traveler's tale, fish story, gooseberry, storm in a teacup, much ado about nothing, puff, puffery, rant, figure of speech, facon de parler, stretch of fancy, stretch of the imagination, flight of fancy, false coloring, aggravation, exaggerated, overwrought, bombastic, hyperbolical, on stilts, fabulous, extravagant, preposterous, egregious, outre, highflying, hyperbolically, excitabat enim fluctus in simpulo.