variants:
or less commonly brier
plural briars also briers
Definition of briar
(Entry 1 of 2)
1
: a plant (such as a rose, blackberry, or greenbrier) having a usually woody and thorny or prickly stem
a thicket of briars … head up an almost invisible trail along the left bank, through young pines and briars.— Robert F. Jones
— see also briar patch
2a
: a mass of briars
… threading his way with perfect skill between tree-trunks, jumping over bush and briar and the smaller streams …— C. S. Lewis … volunteers methodically searching through the briar and trees …— Roy Bragg
b
: a branch or twig of a briar
With my pair of brush cutters that I always carried I cut away enough of the long briars to provide an opening for me to sit comfortably in.— Jean Solbert
briar
noun (2)
variants:
or briar pipe
plural briars or briar pipes
Definition of briar (Entry 2 of 2)
: a tobacco pipe made from a woody root outgrowth of a shrub-like Mediterranean heath (Erica arborea)
He grinned again and disappeared in a great cloud of pipe smoke. I pulled out my briar and joined him.— Marshall Harrison Spelling extracts a black briar pipe from his dinner jacket, draws his courtiers closer and says in a tiny voice, "I hate parties. What am I doing here?"— Mary Murphy
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Merriam-Webster unabridged
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Time Traveler for briar
The first known use of briar was before the 12th century
See more words from the same century