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thorn
1[ thawrn ]
noun
- a sharp excrescence on a plant, especially a sharp-pointed aborted branch; spine; prickle.
- any of various thorny shrubs or trees, especially the hawthorns belonging to the genus Crataegus, of the rose family.
- the wood of any of these trees.
- a runic character (þ), borrowed into the Latin alphabet and representing the initial th sounds in thin and they in Old English, or thin in modern Icelandic.
- something that wounds, annoys, or causes discomfort.
verb (used with object)
- to prick with a thorn; vex.
Thorn
2[ tawrn ]
noun
- German name of Toruń.
Thorn
1/ toːrn /
thorn
2/ θɔːn /
noun
- a sharp pointed woody extension of a stem or leaf Compare prickle
- any of various trees or shrubs having thorns, esp the hawthorn
- the wood of any of these plants
- short for thorn moth
- a Germanic character of runic origin Þ used in Old and Modern Icelandic to represent the voiceless dental fricative sound of th, as in thin, bath. Its use in phonetics for the same purpose is now obsolete See theta
- this same character as used in Old and Middle English as an alternative to edh, but indistinguishable from it in function or sound Compare edh
- zoology any of various sharp spiny parts
- a source of irritation (esp in the phrases a thorn in one's side or flesh )
thorn
/ thôrn /
- A short, hard, pointed part of a stem or branch of a woody plant.
- Compare spine
Derived Forms
- ˈthornless, adjective
Other Words From
- thornless adjective
- thornlike adjective
- un·thorn verb (used with object)
Word History and Origins
Origin of thorn1
Word History and Origins
Origin of thorn1
Idioms and Phrases
- thorn in one's side / flesh, a source of continual irritation or suffering:
That child is a thorn in the teacher's side.
Example Sentences
Thorn also posted a video on his personal YouTube page wherein he desk-dances to Taylor Swift.
But the system that Battle represents is a constant thorn in their side.
That freedom has been a thorn in the side of many cardinals who feel the sisters should be more conservative.
A tabletop bronze of a boy pulling a thorn from his foot, made around 1500 by the Renaissance sculptor known as Antico.
There are just as many covetable skirts and delicate silk tap shorts as there are thorn-cupped bras and barely-there g-strings.
Taylor alludes to several made from the well known Glastonbury thorn.
I feel as if he were a little child crying with a thorn in his finger, and he had no mother to take it out.
He lay motionless in her lap, until the thorn suddenly let go and lay in Jess' hand.
Then she held the soft paw firmly with her left hand, and pulled steadily on the thorn with her right hand.
She received the infection on a part of the hand which had been previously in a slight degree injured by a scratch from a thorn.
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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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