THORN

A hard and sharp-pointed projection from a woody stem; usually, a branch so transformed; a spine.

Any shrub or small tree which bears thorns; especially, any species of the genus Cratægus, as the hawthorn, whitethorn, cockspur thorn.

Fig.: That which pricks or annoys as a thorn; anything troublesome; trouble; care. There was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me. 2 Cor. xii. 7. The guilt of empire, all its thorns and cares, Be only mine. Southern.

The name of the Anglo-Saxon letter th, as in thin, then. So called because it was the initial letter of thorn, a spine. Thorn apple (Bot.), Jamestown weed. -- Thorn broom (Bot.), a shrub that produces thorns. -- Thorn hedge, a hedge of thorn-bearing trees or bushes. -- Thorn devil. (Zoöl.) See Moloch, 2. -- Thorn hopper (Zoöl.), a tree hopper (Thelia cratægi) which lives on the thorn bush, apple tree, and allied trees.

To prick, as with a thorn. [Poetic] I am the only rose of all the stock That never thorn'd him. Tennyson.