[a. F. sorbe, or ad. L. sorbum service-berry, sorbus service-tree. Cf. SERVE sb.1 So Du. and Flem. sorbe, obs. G. sorbe, sorb.]

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  1.  The fruit of the service-tree (Pyrus domestica); a service-berry.

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1530.  Palsgr., 272/2. Sorbe, a kynde of frute, sorbe.

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1555.  Eden, Decades, II. I. (Arb.), 110. A certeyne sweetnes myxt with a gentell sharpnes as haue the frutes cauled Sorbes.

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1658.  Phillips, Sorb, a kinde of fruit, called a Service.

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1853.  Soyer, Pantropheon, 305. Several other kinds of fruits, such as sorbs, medlars, and mulberries.

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1889.  Edin. Rev., April, 472. Her native fruits were merely nuts and poor berries, masts, sorbs, and crabs.

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  2.  a. The service-tree (Pyrus domestica).

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1555.  Eden, Decades, II. I. (Arb.), 110, note. Sorbes are cauled in french cormier; they grow not in Englande.

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1707.  Mortimer, Husb., 357. The Quick Beam or wild Sorb, by some called the Irish Ash.

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1796.  Withering, Brit. Plants (ed. 3), II. 460. True Service, or Sorb.

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1845.  Browning, Englishman in Italy, 138. [To] strip from the sorbs A treasure so rosy and wondrous, Of hairy gold orbs!

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  b.  = SERVICE2 3, SERVICE-TREE 2.

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1777.  Jacob, Cat. Plants, 69. Cratægus torminalis, the common or wild Service-tree, or Sorb.

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1796.  Withering, Brit. Plants (ed. 3), II. 458. Wild Service-tree, or Sorb.

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  c.  The rowan-tree; = SERVICE-TREE 3.

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1796.  W. H. Marshall, Rur. Econ. W. England, II. 30–1. The Birch, the Mountain Sorb, and the Larch, if judiciously propagated, would flourish, I apprehend, on the bleakest exposures.

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1799.  W. Nicol, Pract. Planter, 18. The Mountain Ash, or Sorb, would exuberate here, and assist in nursing the Oak [etc.].

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  3.  attrib. and Comb., as sorb-leaved adj., sorb-tree.

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1548.  Turner, Names Herbes, 75. Thys tree maye be called in englishe a sorb tree; and the fruite a sorb Appel.

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1789.  J. Pilkington, View Derbysh., I. 405. Sorbus domestica. True Service, or Sorb-tree.

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1845.  Florist Jrnl., 156. The sorb-leaved spirea is well known as an inhabitant of shrubberies.

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1849.  J. A. Carlyle, trans. Dante’s Inf., xv. Amongst the tart sorb-trees, it befits not the sweet fig to fructify.

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