Dictionary

arbutus en · NOUN

Etymology

From taxonomic name Arbutus, from Latin arbutus.

Meanings

1. (countable, uncountable) A strawberry tree, any of the flowering plants in the genus Arbutus.
   • Many nights, though autumnal mists were spread around, I passed under an ilex - many times I have supped on arbutus berries and chestnuts, making a fire, gypsy-like, on the ground […] 1826, [Mary Shelley], chapter X, in The Last Man. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC:
2. (countable, uncountable) A mayflower or trailing arbutus (Epigaea repens).
   • Ah, who is he,—on whom young men and maidens look with pitying eye? to whom the old man lifts his hat, and little children cease from their sports as he passes, and quietly slip the innocent daisy, or the sweet-scented arbutus into his hand, which they have culled from the wide commons, where, they have been told, the good Sea-flower loved to stray. 1859, Ferna Vale, Natalie; or, A Gem Among the Sea-Weeds:
3. (uncountable) Arbute; wood of strawberry trees.

Forms