Definitions:
originally: the redcurrant bush or (with distinguishing word) the blackcurrant or whitecurrant bush (now rare). in later use (chiefly botany): (in form ribes) a genus of small, often spiny shrubs of the family grossulariaceae, including species cultivated for their berries (especially the gooseberry, r. uva-crispa, the redcurrant, r. rubrum, and the blackcurrant, r. nigrum) or for their flowers (especially the flowering currant, r. sanguineum); (also ribes) a shrub of this genus, especially one grown for its flowers.