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THORN
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Something that causes irritation and annoyance
Example:
he's a thorn in my flesh
Synonyms:
irritant; thorn
Classified under:
Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents
Hypernyms ("thorn" is a kind of...):
annoyance; bother; botheration; infliction; pain; pain in the ass; pain in the neck (something or someone that causes trouble; a source of unhappiness)
Sense 2
Meaning:
A Germanic character of runic origin
Classified under:
Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents
Hypernyms ("thorn" is a kind of...):
rune; runic letter (any character from an ancient Germanic alphabet used in Scandinavia from the 3rd century to the Middle Ages)
Sense 3
Meaning:
A small sharp-pointed tip resembling a spike on a stem or leaf
Synonyms:
pricker; prickle; spikelet; spine; sticker; thorn
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("thorn" is a kind of...):
aculeus (a stiff sharp-pointed plant process)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "thorn"):
glochid; glochidium (a barbed spine or bristle (often tufted on cacti))
Derivation:
thorny (having or covered with protective barbs or quills or spines or thorns or setae etc.)
II. (verb)
Sense 1
Present simple (first person singular and plural, second person singular and plural, third person plural) of the verb thorn
Context examples:
To the west was a great valley, and then, rising far away, great jagged mountain fastnesses, rising peak on peak, the sheer rock studded with mountain ash and thorn, whose roots clung in cracks and crevices and crannies of the stone.
(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)
Scott Poethig, a plant biologist at Penn, and Aaron Leichty of the University of California, Davis, show that as part of an age-dependent phenomenon in plant development, the acacias develop the traits necessary to feed the ant colony: hollow, swollen thorns to house them; and nectaries and nutrient-rich leaflet tips called Beltian bodies to feed them.
(Between ants and acacias, timing is everything, National Science Foundation)
He escaped with his life, but the thorns into which he fell pierced his eyes.
(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)
The path over yonder, betwixt the oak and the thorn, should bring you out into his nether field.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprung up and choked them.
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
I clutched at a gun—my pockets were full of cartridges—and, parting the thorn bushes at the gate of our zareba, quickly slipped out.
(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
"No, nor felt such thorns," returned Laurie, with his thumb in his mouth, after a vain attempt to capture a solitary scarlet flower that grew just beyond his reach.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
Externals have a great effect on the young: I thought that a fairer era of life was beginning for me, one that was to have its flowers and pleasures, as well as its thorns and toils.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
The thorns soon began to tear his clothes till they all hung in rags about him, and he himself was all scratched and wounded, so that the blood ran down.
(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)
“By the thorn of Glastonbury! ill days are coming upon Beaulieu,” said he.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
