gooseberry

noun (plural gooseberries)

• 1a round edible yellowish-green or reddish berry with a thin translucent hairy skin.

• 2the thorny European shrub which bears gooseberries.

  • Ribes grossularia, family Grossulariaceae

• 3British informal a third person in the company of two people, especially lovers, who would prefer to be alone:they didn’t want me playing gooseberry on their first date

  [from gooseberry-picker, referring to an activity used as a pretext for the lovers to be together]