Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A species of plum, Prunus insititia, a native of Asia Minor and southern Europe, but now naturalized and cultivated further north.
  • noun The popular name of Melicocca bijuga, a common West Indian tree, producing a green egg-shaped fruit with a pleasant vinous and aromatic flavor.
  • noun In the United States, the muscadine grape, Vitis vulpina.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A small European plum (Prunus communis, var. insitita). See plum.
  • noun The bully tree.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A small European plum (Prunus communis, var. insitita).
  • noun The bully tree.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun small wild or half-domesticated Eurasian plum bearing small ovoid fruit in clusters

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English bolas, from Anglo-Norman bullace, from Medieval Latin bolluca.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Middle English bolas, bolace, from Old French beloce; of Celtic origin.

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Examples

  • -- Formerly the sloe, _P. spinosa_, was thought to be the parent of all our plums; but now this honour is very commonly accorded to _P. insititia_ or the bullace, which is found wild in the Caucasus and N. - Western India, and is naturalised in

    The Variation of Animals and Plants Under Domestication, Vol. I. Charles Darwin 1845

  • At the outside of the orchard, damson, bullace, and tall plum trees had been planted.

    Secrets of the Tudor Court Kate Emerson 2010

  • At the outside of the orchard, damson, bullace, and tall plum trees had been planted.

    Secrets of the Tudor Court Kate Emerson 2010

  • At the outside of the orchard, damson, bullace, and tall plum trees had been planted.

    Secrets of the Tudor Court Kate Emerson 2010

  • At the outside of the orchard, damson, bullace, and tall plum trees had been planted.

    Secrets of the Tudor Court Kate Emerson 2010

  • Most of the other hedges are a mix of hazel, maple and ash, with here and there a holly, crab apple, bullace or an oak, and an under-blush of dogwood, the hips of wild roses or the exquisite little pink berries of the spindle tree.

    Wildwood Roger Deakin 2009

  • The finger bones had pointed to avatars, and it seemed to me the avatars had sown plants that I might find them now, and harvest what was needed: shiny evergreen leaves of the holm oak, barberries, five-leaf root, bullace branches, and tender feverfew leaves that had lingered into winter.

    Wildfire Sarah Micklem 2009

  • The finger bones had pointed to avatars, and it seemed to me the avatars had sown plants that I might find them now, and harvest what was needed: shiny evergreen leaves of the holm oak, barberries, five-leaf root, bullace branches, and tender feverfew leaves that had lingered into winter.

    Wildfire Sarah Micklem 2009

  • The finger bones had pointed to avatars, and it seemed to me the avatars had sown plants that I might find them now, and harvest what was needed: shiny evergreen leaves of the holm oak, barberries, five-leaf root, bullace branches, and tender feverfew leaves that had lingered into winter.

    Wildfire Sarah Micklem 2009

  • Most of the other hedges are a mix of hazel, maple and ash, with here and there a holly, crab apple, bullace or an oak, and an under-blush of dogwood, the hips of wild roses or the exquisite little pink berries of the spindle tree.

    Wildwood Roger Deakin 2009

Comments

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  • "wild plum" in the Yorkshire dialect.

    June 27, 2009

  • Come buy, come buy:

    Our grapes fresh from the vine,

    Pomegranates full and fine

    Dates and sharp bullaces

    (from "Goblin Market" by Christina Rossetti)

    March 25, 2019