briar
Any of many plants with thorny stems growing in dense clusters, such as many in the…Any of many plants with thorny stems growing in dense clusters, such as many in the Rosa, Rubus, and Smilax genera.
» This smoking pipe is made from briar root.
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5 languagesExamples
1 sentencesThis smoking pipe is made from briar root.
Meaning
4 sensesTree heath (Erica arborea), a thorny Mediterranean shrub.
Baumheide
A pipe for smoking, made from the roots of that shrub.
Bruyère-Pfeife
Any of many plants with thorny stems growing in dense clusters, such as many in the Rosa, Rubus, and Smilax genera.
(figuratively)Anything that is sharp or unpleasant to the feelings.
- Eurasian rose with prickly stems and fragrant leaves and bright pink flowers followed by scarlet hips
- a very prickly woody vine of the eastern United States growing in tangled masses having tough round stems with shiny leathery leaves and small greenish flowers followed by clusters of inedible shiny black berries
- evergreen treelike Mediterranean shrub having fragrant white flowers in large terminal panicles and hard woody roots used to make tobacco pipes
- a pipe made from the root (briarroot) of the tree heath
Origin
From Middle English brere, from Old English brēr [Old Mercian], brǣr (“briar, bramble”); fFrom Middle English brere, from Old English brēr [Old Mercian], brǣr (“briar, bramble”); further origin unknown, perhaps related to Old French bruiere (“heather”) (French bruyère). Compare Old Norse brǫrr (“briar”), whence Icelandic brörr.
From French bruyère, assimilated with Etymology 1, above.
Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Forms
plural: briarsSynonyms
14 synonyms- Eurasian rose with prickly stems and fragrant leaves and bright pink flowers followed by scarlet hips:sweetbriersweetbriarbriereglantineRosa eglanteria
- a very prickly woody vine of the eastern United States growing in tangled masses having tough round stems with shiny leathery leaves and small greenish flowers followed by clusters of inedible shiny black berries:bullbriergreenbriercatbrierhorse brierhorse-brierbrierSmilax rotundifolia
- evergreen treelike Mediterranean shrub having fragrant white flowers in large terminal panicles and hard woody roots used to make tobacco pipes:tree heathbrierErica arborea
- a pipe made from the root (briarroot) of the tree heath:briar pipe
Word family
5 related wordsSee also
neighbours in the dictionaryDictionary text adapted from Wiktionary (Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet / Princeton WordNet (CC BY 4.0, WordNet License); shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentences and recordings are credited where they appear.