See Also: gooseberry(medicine)
gooseberry(dictionary)
gooseberry(encyclopedia)
gooseberry(dictionary)
Gooseberry and elderflower tart(recipes)
Gooseberry and elderflower parfait(recipes)
Gooseberry and elderflower fool(recipes)
Baked gooseberry pudding(recipes)
Rabbit stewed in gooseberry champagne(recipes)
Scones with Cape Gooseberry Jam and Clotted Cream(recipes)

gooseberry (iou)



gooseberry noun. M16.
[1st elem. perh. alt. (by unexpl. assim. to GOOSE noun) of forms such as French dial. groser, gozell, repr. remotely Old & mod. French groseille, grozelle; but perh. from GOOSE noun + BERRY noun1.]
An acid green or red-tinged freq. hairy edible berry, the fruit of the European thorny shrub Ribes uva-crispa and related species or hybrids; the shrub producing this berry. M16.
b. The berry of other species of Ribes; a (red, black, etc.) currant. L16-M17.
c. With specifying word: (the fruit of) any of various shrubs resembling the gooseberry. M19.
Barbados gooseberry (the edible fruit of) Pereskia aculeata, a West Indian vine of the cactus family. Cape gooseberry: see CAPE noun1. Chinese gooseberry: see CHINESE adjective. OTAHEITE gooseberry.
Gooseberry wine. Also (joc.), inferior champagne. M18.
old gooseberry, the Devil; esp. in play old gooseberry, create havoc. slang. L18.
A chaperon; an unwanted third party. Freq. in play gooseberry. slang. M19.
G. Swift Her husband..a clumsy gooseberry to this scene of painful intimacy.
Comb.: gooseberry-bush a shrub producing gooseberries, esp. as a supposed place where (in coy explanations of the human reproduction) newly born babies are found; gooseberry eyes: dull grey; gooseberry fool: see FOOL noun2; gooseberry season the time when gooseberries are ripe (big gooseberry season (arch.) = SILLY season).