- a small green fruit that grows on a bush with thorns. Gooseberries have a bitter sharp taste and are usually cooked to make jam, pies, etc. Children are sometimes told that babies come from ‘under the gooseberry bush’.
- a gooseberry bush
Word Originmid 16th cent.: the first element perhaps from goose, or perhaps based on Old French groseille, altered because of an unexplained association with the bird.
Idioms
See gooseberry in the Oxford Advanced American Dictionaryplay gooseberry
- (British English) to be a third person with two people who have a romantic relationship and want to be alone together
Check pronunciation:
gooseberry