Definition of "sloe" [sloe]

• See blackthorn. (noun)
• Either of two eastern North American plum trees or shrubs, Prunus alleghaniensis, having dark purple fruit, or P. americana, having yellow or red fruit. (noun)
• The tart plumlike fruit of either of these plants. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Real tea-leaf tea alone contains the restorative they want; which is not to be found in sloe-leaf tea."
• "And it doesn't hurt that the drink's name also allows for the employment of a stock joke that turns on the fact that most people hear "slow" rather than "sloe" -- the purplish-red berry of the blackthorn bush that gives the liqueur its flavor."
• "The fruit, called sloe, can be made into a liqueur called sloe gin, of the "fizz" fame, but Ulrike discovered a distillery that makes it into a kind of sherry made of sloes."