cranberry
n. countablen. a small, sour, red berry that grows on a bush. People often cook them into a sauce or drink the juice.
n. a small, tart, red fruit produced by various species of evergreen dwarf shrubs in the genus Vaccinium. Often processed into juice, sauce, or dried forms due to its high acidity.
I like to drink cranberry juice with my breakfast.
The chef prepared a fresh cranberry sauce to balance the richness of the roasted meat.
Native to the wetlands of North America, the cranberry is one of the few commercially grown fruits that thrives in acidic bogs and requires specific flooding techniques for harvest.
Adapted in the 1640s from Dutch Low Saxon or German Low German Kraanbeere, from Kraan m (which means and is cognate to crane) + Beere f (which means and is cognate to berry). Equivalent to cran- + berry. Via PIE cognate with Polish żurawina, Russian журави́ка (žuravíka) (akin to жура́вль (žurávlʹ, “crane”)); Latvian dzērvene < dzērve (“crane”).
Often used as a modifier before other nouns, such as 'cranberry sauce' or 'cranberry juice'.