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DictionarysloeBlackthorn fruit
noun

sloe

SLOH/sləʊ/

A small, dark, sour fruit of the blackthorn shrub.

Each sloe has dark skin and a sharply sour taste.

A close botanical still life of blue-black sloes on a thorny blackthorn twig, with loose fruit and one cut fruit revealing its single stone; a small jar of sloes steeping in ruby-colored spirit provides the culinary-use cue.
Etymology
sloeOld Englishblackthorn fruit

Old English slah named the blackthorn fruit. Its deeper ancestry connects the name with bluish or blue-black coloring, matching the dark skin of the fruit used in sloe gin.

In context

Jamie Oliver - Drinks0:39
the star of the show - the sloe berries.
How to make Sloe Gin | Lottie Muir

More examples

  • We gather sloes from the blackthorn bushes in autumn.
  • She soaks sloes in gin with sugar.
  • A sloe contains a hard stone at its center.

Forms

sloe · sloes

Similar words

plum
A broader fruit name, usually suggesting larger, sweeter cultivated varieties.