DCHP-1 Online

squawberry

• 1 n. a kind of blueberry, Vaccinium stamineum.

  • 1852  (1881)  At present we have plenty of . . . squawberries . . . and birdcherries.
  • 1852  The partridge leads her young brood forth to feed upon the soft luscious fruits of the huckleberry and squaw-berry.

• 2 n. a trailing shrub, Arctostaphylos uva-ursi, found on bare, gravelly soils throughout Canada; kinnikinnik (def. 2).

  See also: bearberry (def. 1)  kinnikinik  

  • 1872  (1873)  The sasketoon are simply what are known in Nova Scotia as Indian pears, and the kinni-kinnick creeper is our squaw-berry plant.
  • 1947  When he [a snowshoe hare] curled up for a good night of rest, looking out through the leafless boughs of his squawberry, he saw the moon very white on the surface of the water. . . .
  • 1957  Dried elderberry, or squawberry or wild currant he did not care for. . . .

• 3 n.

  See also: partridgeberry  

  • 1912  (1913)  After the squaw [has] been named [the] Squawberry (the partridge berry). . . .