huckleberry en · NOUN
Pronunciation
- /ˈhʌkl̩b(ə)ɹi/ (Received-Pronunciation)
- (Australia) audio
- /ˈhʌkl̩ˌbɛɹi/ (General-American)
Etymology
Probably an alteration of Middle English hurtilbery (“whortleberry”). American English from 1660s.
Meanings
-
A small round fruit of a dark blue or red color, of several plants in the related genera Vaccinium and Gaylussacia.
I stumbled along through the young pines and huckleberry bushes. Pretty soon I struck into a sort of path that, I cal'lated, might lead to the road I was hunting for. It twisted and turned, and, the first thing I knew, made a sudden bend around a bunch of bayberry scrub and opened out into a big clear space like a lawn.
1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter I, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:
- A shrub growing this fruit.
-
A small amount, a short distance, as in the phrase huckleberry above a persimmon.
Porter preferred prose to poetry. Prose seemed to him to be a concrete, practical form of expression. But poetry, as he informed a poet who signed his name “Evergreen,” was “a huckleberry beyond us.”
1967, Richard Boyd Hauck, The Literary Content of the New York Spirit of the Times, 1831-1856, Ph.D. dissertation, University of Illinois, page 88:
-
(slang) A person of little consequence.
1999, Paul Lieberstein, "De-Kahnstructing Henry" (King of the Hill TV episode You got such a bug in your bonnet about phones? Check this out. I call France on this phone whenever I want. France, Europe, huckleberry.
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(US, slang) The person one is looking for; the right person for the job.
I'm your huckleberry.
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| huckleberries | Number=Plur | lexicographic |
Deriveds
bear huckleberry · California huckleberry · blue huckleberry · squaw huckleberry · highbush huckleberry · huckleberry above one's persimmon · box huckleberry · evergreen huckleberry · above one's huckleberry · he-huckleberry · woolly huckleberry · red huckleberry · I'm your huckleberry · black huckleberry · garden huckleberry · fool's huckleberry · winter huckleberry · tree huckleberry · bush huckleberry · huckleberry above a persimmon · hairy-twig huckleberry · dwarf huckleberry · huckleberry oak
Translations (20)
fr myrtille américaine (fruit — see also buckberry) · chn shat ulali (fruit — see also buckberry) · fi pensasmustikka (fruit — see also buckberry) · fi valemustikka (shrub — see also buckberry) · ca mirtil americà (fruit — see also buckberry) · ca nadó (fruit — see also buckberry) · es arándano americano (fruit — see also buckberry) · fi puolukka (shrub — see also buckberry) · fi valemustikka (fruit — see also buckberry) · mi huapēre (fruit — see also buckberry) · bla aapaawapsspi (fruit — see also buckberry) · fi pensasmustikka (shrub — see also buckberry) · chr ᎫᏩᏯ (shrub — see also buckberry) · fi hiven (small amount) · it mirtillo americano (fruit — see also buckberry) · pt mirtilo americano (fruit — see also buckberry) · la myrtillus americanus (fruit — see also buckberry) · de Heidelbeere (fruit — see also buckberry) · fi puolukka (fruit — see also buckberry) · unm min (fruit — see also buckberry)