blackberrying (blakber"iing)

[ + -ing; as if from a verb blackberry. See the quot. from Chaucer, below.] The gathering of blackberries. Go a blakeberyedt, a doubtful phrase occurring once in Chaucer in the Pardoner's Tale: I rekke never, whan that ben beryed, Though that her soules gon a blakeberyed . [Skeat explains blakeberyed, apparently a past participle, as a verbal substantive, and the whole phrase as meaning "go a blackberrying," that is, go where they please. The grammatical explanation is doubtle correct; but the context seems to show that the phrase is a humorous euphemism for "go to hell."]