Also 7 bilbery. [App. of Norse origin; cf. Da. böllebær, f. bölle (used separately for bilberry) + bær BERRY. (The origin of Da. bölle is unknown; the suggestion that it is:—ON. bǫllr BALL is phonetically improbable, since this gives Sw. boll, Da. bold.)]
1. The fruit of a dwarf hardy shrub (Vaccinium Myrtillus), abundant on heaths, on stony moors, and in mountain woods, in Great Britain and Northern Europe; the berry is of a deep blue black, and about a quarter of an inch in diameter. So called chiefly in the Midlands; other names are WHORTLEBERRY and BLAEBERRY. The name is applied also to the plant, and used attrib.
1577. Dee, Relat. Spir., I. (1659), 171. The cloth, Hair-colourd, Bilbery juyce.
1594. Barnfield, Aff. Sheph., II. xii. Straw-berries or Bil-berries, in their prime.
1598. Shaks., Merry W., V. v. 49. There pinch the Maids as blew as Bill-berry.
1810. Wordsw., Descr. Lakes, 1 (1823), 29. The bilberry, a ground plant, never so beautiful as in early spring.
1821. Clare, Vill. Minstr., I. 87. In misty blue, Bilberries glow on tendrils weak.
1860. Tyndall, Glac., I. § 6. 45. I lay down upon the bilberry bushes.
2. Applied with or without qualification to other species of Vaccinium; e.g., in Britain to the Great Bilberry or Bog Whortleberry (V. uliginosum).
1640. Parkinson, Theat. Bot., 1455. Vaccinia nigra fructu majore. The greater Billberry.
1859. R. Burton, Centr. Afr., in Jrnl. R. G. S., XXIX. 84. Garlands of small red bilberries.
1864. Webster, s.v., The species of American bilberry are referred to the sub-genus Eu-vaccinium.
Hence Bilberrying vbl. sb., gathering bilberries.
1859. W. Coleman, Woodlands (1866), 92. A party of rustic children ‘a bilberrying.’
