Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Thorn

Thorn, n. [AS. þorn; akin to OS. & OFries. thorn, D. doorn, G. dorn, Dan. torn, Sw. törne, Icel. þorn, Goth. þaúrnus; cf. Pol. tarn, Russ. tern' the blackthorn, ternie thorns, Skr. tṛṇa grass, blade of grass. √53.] 1. A hard and sharp-pointed projection from a woody stem; usually, a branch so transformed; a spine.

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

3. 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.

4. The name of the Anglo-Saxon letter þ, capital form Þ. It was used to represent both of the sounds of English 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.

Thorn, v. t. To prick, as with a thorn. [Poetic]

I am the only rose of all the stock That never thorn'd him. Tennyson.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.