bramble

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

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈbɹæm.bəl/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈbɹæm.bəl/
  • (/æ/ raising) IPA^(key): [ˈbɹɛəm.bəl], [ˈbɹɛəm.bl̩]

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• Rhymes: -æmbəl

bramble (plural brambles)

1. 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.

   • 1949 November and December, “Notes and News: Festiniog and Welsh Highland Railways”, in Railway Magazine, page 408:

     At the same time, the encroachment of vegetation proceeds apace, and broom and brambles have already made portions of the line impassable, even on foot.

   • 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.

2. Any thorny shrub.
3. A cocktail of gin, lemon juice, and blackberry liqueur.
4. (chiefly Scotland) The soft fruit borne by the species Rubus fruticosus formed of a black (when ripe) cluster of drupelets.

   Synonyms: blackberry, brambleberry

bramble (third-person singular simple present brambles, present participle brambling, simple past and past participle brambled)

1. To pick or collect blackberries from brambles.