briar
briar Lexical Profile
briar Game Scores & Validity
• noun
Any of various thorny, scrambling shrubs or vines, especially a wild rose (such as the sweetbriar) or greenbrier.
"The hiker's legs were badly scratched after wading through a dense patch of briar in the deep woods."
A dense, tangled mass or thicket of prickly plants.
"In the classic folktale, the rabbit cleverly begs the fox not to throw him into the briar patch."
The hard, heat-resistant wood of the tree heath (Erica arborea) native to southern Europe, or a tobacco pipe made from its root nodules.
"The old sailor sat peacefully on the porch, thoughtfully packing tobacco into his favorite briar."
Word Nuance & Usage
The term actually represents two etymologically distinct words that converged in spelling: one referring to thorny plants (from Old English) and another referring to the wood of the tree heath used for pipes (from French 'bruyère').
• Rhymes for briar
Word Origin & Etymology
The plant sense derives from Old English 'brēr' (bramble, prickly bush). The pipe sense derives from French 'bruyère' (heath), which was anglicized to 'briar' due to phonetic similarity.
Usage Trend
Historical frequency of usage in published text.