Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A prickly shrub of the genus Rubus of the rose family, including the blackberry and the raspberry.
  • noun A prickly shrub or bush.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To pick brambles or blackberries.
  • noun A name common to plants of the genus Rubus, especially and usually in England the common blackberry, R. fruticosus; occasionally (from these plants being armed with prickles), any rough prickly shrub, as the dogrose, Rosa canina.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Bot.) Any plant of the genus Rubus, including the raspberry and blackberry. Hence: Any rough, prickly shrub.
  • noun (Zoöl.) The brambling or bramble finch.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun UK Common blackberry.
  • noun US Any of several closely related thorny plants in the genus Rubus, including blackberry and raspberry.
  • noun Any thorny shrub.
  • noun A cocktail of gin, lemon juice, and blackberry liqueur.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun any of various rough thorny shrubs or vines

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English brembel, from Old English bræmbel.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Middle English brembel, from Old English bræmbel, from earlier brǣmel, brēmel, from dialectal Proto-Germanic *brēmila- (compare West Frisian brommel, Flemish bramel, Low German Brummel), diminutive of *brēm- (compare English broom). More at broom.

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Examples

  • The lighthouse island was stencilled in bramble-black on a gold-leaf sea.

    Try Anything Twice 1938

  • He resumes his work as a shepherd and avoids contact with anything that might be called bramble, hedge, or scrub.

    Archive 2009-07-12 2009

  • He resumes his work as a shepherd and avoids contact with anything that might be called bramble, hedge, or scrub.

    Here we are? 2009

  • Mary is the love of beauty, or of God; the bramble is the stupidity and grossness of the practical world.

    Personality in Literature Rolfe Arnold Scott-James

  • His parable of the reign of the bramble is the earliest example of the kind.

    Smith's Bible Dictionary 1884

  • Here in my present picnic is the suggestive parallel, for even though no such actual episodes as those I have described had been witnessed by me, an examination of the premises beneath my bramble were a sufficient commentary.

    My Studio Neighbors William Hamilton Gibson 1873

  • As amongst all the trees and plants of the earth the bramble is the most troublesome, so it is also the most contemptible.

    Sermons Preached Upon Several Occasions. Vol. VII. 1634-1716 1823

  • The bramble is a worthless plant, not to be numbered among the trees, useless and fruitless, nay, hurtful and vexatious, scratching and tearing, and doing mischief; it began with the curse, and its end is to be burned.

    Commentary on the Whole Bible Volume II (Joshua to Esther) 1721

  • The orthography is doubtful, but there is little question that a kind of bramble-bush is intended.

    ANF01. The Apostolic Fathers with Justin Martyr and Irenaeus 1819-1893 2001

  • In case it is not, then the "bramble" will have to be regarded as the type of hedge that perhaps enclosed the threshing floor.

    Exposition of Genesis: Volume 1 1892-1972 1942

Comments

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  • Plath citations: see note at lapwing.

    April 14, 2008