Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A small creeping plant, the Mitchella repens, growing in North America.
  • noun The American wintergreen, Gaultheria procumbens.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Bot.) A spicy plant and its bright red berry; the wintergreen (Gaultheria procumbens). Also incorrectly applied to the partridge berry (Mitchella repens).

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The teaberry, Gaultheria procumbens.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun creeping shrub of eastern North America having white bell-shaped flowers followed by spicy red berrylike fruit and shiny aromatic leaves that yield wintergreen oil
  • noun spicy red berrylike fruit; source of wintergreen oil

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[checker(board) + berry.]

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word checkerberry.

Examples

  • Both boys breathed deep of the piney fragrance and filled their mouths with pungent "checkerberry" leaves.

    Still Jim Honor�� Morrow 1910

  • Ground pine and "checkerberry" grew abundantly in the grove.

    Still Jim Honor�� Morrow 1910

  • Charlie's fat hand a long and toothsome piece of checkerberry pipe stem!

    The Knights of the White Shield Up-the-Ladder Club Series, Round One Play Edward A. Rand

  • "Now I will have a fine surprise for her when she awakes," and the little girl tiptoed noiselessly back to the edge of the woods, where she had noticed a quantity of checkerberry leaves.

    A Little Maid of Old Maine Alice Turner Curtis

  • They looked for the story in the windings of the checkerberry-vine and blue-eyed periwinkle, on the lichens curiously growing on the boles of aged trees; but for all these they had no dictionary.

    The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 08, No. 49, November, 1861 Various

  • There were checkerberry-pipe and licorice-pipe and sassafras-pipe, and -- how Wort's eyes did glisten and his mouth water as he imagined the different kinds there!

    The Knights of the White Shield Up-the-Ladder Club Series, Round One Play Edward A. Rand

  • There were many crimson berries still clinging to the vines, and Anna picked these carefully, using her cap for a basket, and gathering a quantity of the young checkerberry leaves.

    A Little Maid of Old Maine Alice Turner Curtis

  • Then, suddenly, she remembered that Rebecca was at home ill, and that she had entirely forgotten her, and the young checkerberry leaves she had intended picking for her sister.

    A Little Maid of Old Maine Alice Turner Curtis

  • The raw eggs tasted good to the hungry girls, and the good corn-bread and spicy berries and tender checkerberry leaves, with cool water to drink, made them both feel refreshed and rested, and ready for the remaining distance to Chandler's River settlement.

    A Little Maid of Old Maine Alice Turner Curtis

  • "I will go over on the hill and get her some young checkerberry leaves," resolved Anna, remembering how Rebby liked their sharp flavor.

    A Little Maid of Old Maine Alice Turner Curtis

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • If Chubby and Chuck got married, they wouldn't need a hyphen for the surname

    November 13, 2009

  • Madz has nailed this one.

    November 16, 2009