Library / English Dictionary

BRIAR

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

A pipe made from the root (briarroot) of the tree heath

Synonyms:

briar; briar pipe

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("briar" is a kind of...):

pipe; tobacco pipe (a tube with a small bowl at one end; used for smoking tobacco)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Evergreen treelike Mediterranean shrub having fragrant white flowers in large terminal panicles and hard woody roots used to make tobacco pipes

Synonyms:

briar; brier; Erica arborea; tree heath

Classified under:

Nouns denoting plants

Hypernyms ("briar" is a kind of...):

erica; true heath (any plant of the genus Erica)

Meronyms (parts of "briar"):

briarroot (hard woody root of the briar Erica arborea)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A very prickly woody vine of the eastern United States growing in tangled masses having tough round stems with shiny leathery leaves and small greenish flowers followed by clusters of inedible shiny black berries

Synonyms:

briar; brier; bullbrier; catbrier; greenbrier; horse-brier; horse brier; Smilax rotundifolia

Classified under:

Nouns denoting plants

Hypernyms ("briar" is a kind of...):

vine (a plant with a weak stem that derives support from climbing, twining, or creeping along a surface)

Holonyms ("briar" is a member of...):

genus Smilax; Smilax (sometimes placed in Smilacaceae)

Derivation:

briary (having or covered with protective barbs or quills or spines or thorns or setae etc.)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Eurasian rose with prickly stems and fragrant leaves and bright pink flowers followed by scarlet hips

Synonyms:

briar; brier; eglantine; Rosa eglanteria; sweetbriar; sweetbrier

Classified under:

Nouns denoting plants

Hypernyms ("briar" is a kind of...):

rose; rosebush (any of many shrubs of the genus Rosa that bear roses)

Credits

 Context examples: 

He strayed down a walk edged with box, with apple trees, pear trees, and cherry trees on one side, and a border on the other full of all sorts of old-fashioned flowers, stocks, sweet-williams, primroses, pansies, mingled with southernwood, sweet-briar, and various fragrant herbs.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)