Also 7 wortle: see also HURTLE sb.2 [Short for WHORTLEBERRY.] = WHORTLEBERRY.

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1597.  [see HURTLE sb.2].

2

1620.  Venner, Via Recta, vii. 131. The people vse to eat the Wortles in creame and milke.

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1655.  Moufet & Bennet, Health’s Improv., 219. Fen-berries … are of like temper and faculty with our whortles, but somewhat more astringent.

4

1796.  Withering, Brit. Plants (ed. 3), II. 371. Great Bilberry Bush or Whortle.

5

1811.  Shelley, St. Irvyne, VI. i. I see her swift foot dash the dew from the whortle.

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1863.  Baring-Gould, Iceland, 190. The … bog-whortle…, whose white flowers, pink-tipped, stuff the ptarmigan’s crop.

7

  Comb.  1857.  Miss Pratt, Flower. Pl., V. 108. S[alix] myrsinites (Green Whortle-leaved Willow).

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