thorn

plural thorns · alternative þorn

1. biologyA modified branch that is hard and sharp like a spike.
2. Any thorn-like structure on plants, such as the spine and the prickle.

   On the mountains a few junipers and piñons are found, and cactuses, agave, and yuccas, low, fleshy plants with bayonets and thorns.

   1895, J[ohn] W[esley] Powell, chapter I, in Canyons of the Colorado, Meadville, PA: Flood & Vincent; republished as The Exploration of the Colorado River and Its Canyons, New York: Dover, 1961, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 22

3. Any shrub or small tree that bears thorns, especially a hawthorn.

   the white thorn

   1 more example

   the cockspur thorn

4. figurativelyThat which pricks or annoys; anything troublesome.

   The guilt of empire, all its thorns and cares, / Be only mine.

   1692–1717, Robert South, Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London

   1 more example

   There was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me.

   1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 2 Corinthians 12:7

5. A letter of Latin script (capital: Þ, small: þ), borrowed from the futhark; today used only in Icelandic to represent the voiceless dental fricative, but originally used in several early Germanic scripts, including Old English where it represented the dental fricatives that are today written th (Old English did not have phonemic voicing distinctions for fricatives).

   See also Etymology of ye (definite article).

   1 more example

   In Old English manuscripts thorn and eth did not have different phonetic values but were used positionally[.]

   1985, Robert Burchfield, The English Language, Oxford: Oxford University Press, page 175

present singular third person thorns · participle present thorning · participle past thorned · past thorned · alternative þorn

1. To pierce with, or as if with, a thorn (sharp pointed object).

   Even Judge Bradley's callused sentiments were thorned by the narration of Jaclyn's journals.

   2003, Scott D. Zachary, Scorn This, page 175

   1 more example

   […] human nature is, above all things, lazy, and needs to be thorned and goaded up those heights where it ought to fly.

   1869, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Old Town Folks

alternative Thorne

1. A topographic surname from Middle English for someone living near a thorn bush.
2. A place name:
   1. A hamlet in Houghton Regis parish, Central Bedfordshire district, Bedfordshire, England (OS grid ref TL0024).
   2. A village in Maasgouw municipality, Limburg province, Netherlands.
   3. An unincorporated community in Chickasaw County, Mississippi, United States.
   4. Former name of Whitethorn, Humboldt County, California.