gooseberry

[goos-ber-ee, -buh-ree, gooz-] /ˈgusˌbɛr i, -bə ri, ˈguz-/
noun, plural gooseberries.
1.
the edible, acid, globular, sometimes spiny fruit of certain prickly shrubs belonging to the genus Ribes, of the saxifrage family, especially R. uva-crispa (or R. grossularia).
2.
a shrub bearing this fruit.
Origin
1525-35; goose + berry
Examples from the web for gooseberry
  • gooseberry leaves may be used raw in a tossed salad or slaw.
  • They're in the same family as tomatoes but more closely related to the cape gooseberry and surrounded by a similar papery husk.
  • It had never been necessary to delude me with pretty fables of storks and gooseberry bushes.
British Dictionary definitions for gooseberry

gooseberry

/ˈɡʊzbərɪ; -brɪ/
noun (pl) -ries
1.
a Eurasian shrub, Ribes uva-crispa (or R. grossularia), having greenish, purple-tinged flowers and ovoid yellow-green or red-purple berries: family Grossulariaceae See also currant (sense 2)
2.
  1. the berry of this plant
  2. (as modifier): gooseberry jam
3.
(Brit, informal) an unwanted single person in a group of couples, esp a third person with a couple (often in the phrase play gooseberry)
4.
Cape gooseberry, a tropical American solanaceous plant, Physalis peruviana, naturalized in southern Africa, having yellow flowers and edible yellow berries See also ground cherry
Word Origin and History for gooseberry
n.

1530s, perhaps from German Krausebeere or Kräuselbeere, related to Middle Dutch croesel "gooseberry," and to German kraus "crispy, curly" [Klein, etc.]. Under this theory, gooseberry would be folk etymology. But OED editors find no reason to prefer this to a literal reading, because "the grounds on which plants and fruits have received names associating them with animals are so commonly inexplicable, that the want of appropriateness in the meaning affords no sufficient ground for assuming that the word is an etymological corruption."