Definition of "bayberry"

bayberry

noun
plural bayberries
1. (Canada, US) The fruit of the wax myrtle shrub; or the plant itself (Morella cerifera), with aromatic, leathery leaves and waxy berries.
  Quotations
  It twisted and turned, and, the first thing I knew, made a sudden bend around a bunch of bayberry scrub and opened out into a big clear space like a lawn.
  1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 1, in Mr. Pratt's Patients
  1. Other species in the family Myricaceae, especially in genus Myrica; bay-rum tree, candleberry.
    Quotations
    The two North American genera are Myrica (bayberry) and Comptonia (sweet-fern).
    2002, James Fralish, Scott Franklin, Taxonomy and Ecology of Woody Plants in North American Forests‎, Myricaceae (Bayberry or Wax-Myrtle Family), page 230
2. The fruit of the bay laurel (Laurus nobilis).
  Quotations
  [T]heir shape was much like a Figg, but very much smaller, some being about the bigness of a Bay-berry, others, and the biggest, of a Hazel-Nut.
  1665, Robert Hooke, Micrographica, section XLIII
3. West Indian bay tree (Pimenta racemosa), a tropical American shrub with aromatic leaves that are used in the preparation of bay rum.