dogberry
/ˈdɔɡˌbɛri/
noun
- The small, red or black fruit of the dogwood tree or shrub.
- She collected a handful of dogberries to use in a wild jelly recipe.
- The dogberries ripened in late summer, attracting birds to the garden.
- Dogberries are not very tasty to humans but are an important food for wildlife.
- A bumbling, foolish character in Shakespeare's play 'Much Ado About Nothing'.
- Shakespeare's Dogberry is a classic example of a well-meaning but incompetent official.
- Dogberry's malapropisms provide some of the funniest moments in the play.
- In the school play, he was cast as Dogberry, the comic constable.