bramble

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

• 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.

   • 2012 July 19, “Rubus Diversity and Obscurity…Batology!”, in The Fruit Nut‎^[1]:

     There seems to be a term for just about everything… it turns out there’s even a term for the scientific study of members of the Rubus genus— batology. No, not the study of bats. In exploring batology you’ll find that the most commonly cultivated brambles come from a complex lineage…

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

5. (graph theory) A collection of mutually touching connected subgraphs, where two subgraphs touch if they share a vertex or each includes one endpoint of an edge.

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

1. To pick or collect blackberries from brambles.