🫐 A sour fruit 🌿 A thorny shrub

sloe

9.9

A small thorny bush that makes dark purple sour berries used for gin

noun
/sloʊ/

Specialized

: espino negro

Wild sloe bushes grow along the hedgerows in the English countryside.

Examples

The sloe bush is common in hedgerows.
The tart sloe berries are often used to make sloe gin.
In autumn, birds feast on the ripe sloe fruits.
I found some sloes while hiking yesterday.
The chef used freshly picked sloes to make a tangy jam that was perfect for spreading on toast.
In autumn, the hedgerows were filled with sloes, their dark purple fruits waiting to be harvested.
She crafted a homemade liqueur using sloes, sugar, and gin, which turned out to be quite popular at parties.

Synonyms

blackthorn

vssloe

1 8.2

A thorny shrub from Europe and Asia with small white flowers and dark blue fruits like small plums

emphasizes the shrub's sour dark purple fruits rather than its use in flavoring spirits

Prunus spinosa

vssloe

Specialized

9.2

A thorny bush from Europe and Asia with small dark blue fruits

focuses on the shrub's sour dark purple fruits rather than formal name

Compounds

sloe gin

1 8.2

A sweet red alcoholic drink made by soaking small dark fruits from the blackthorn bush in gin

Surface Forms

sloe singular

sloes plural

Etymology

Sloe comes from an old English word slāh that named the 'blackthorn' tree, so sloe can also mean the small, thorny bush that bears those sour dark berries.