Meanings
plural sweetbriers · alternative sweet-brier · alternative sweet brier · alternative sweetbriar · alternative sweet-briar · alternative sweet briar · alternative sweet-breare
- A Eurasian rose (Rosa rubiginosa, syn. Rosa eglanteria), having prickly stems, fragrant leaves, pink flowers, and red hips.
But some woods are more coquettish in their habits; and the breath of the forest of Mormal, as it came aboard upon us that showery afternoon, was perfumed with nothing less delicate than sweetbrier.
1878, Robert Louis Stevenson, An Inland Voyage, London: C[harles] Kegan Paul & Co., […], →OCLC1 more example
Is it some ill-fed village hound yielding to the instinct of the chase? or the lost pig which is said to be in these woods, whose tracks I saw after the rain? It comes on apace; my sumachs and sweet-briers tremble.
1854 August 9, Henry D[avid] Thoreau, Walden; or, Life in the Woods, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, →OCLCSynonyms: eglantine
Synonyms & antonyms
nounA Eurasian rose (Rosa rubiginosa, syn. Rosa eglanteria), having prickly stems, fragrant leaves, pink flowers, and red hips.
More synonyms by meaning
nounEurasian rose with prickly stems and fragrant leaves and bright pink flowers followed by scarlet hips
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
Cite this entry
sweetbrier. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/sweetbrier
“sweetbrier.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/sweetbrier. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “sweetbrier,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/sweetbrier.
Source: sweetbrier on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.