briar

noun

variants or briar pipe

plural briars or briar pipes

: 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

Examples of briar in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Before the Austrian briar came along, garden roses were either white, pink, or red. —Joshua Siskin, Oc Register, 21 Mar. 2026

Wildlife officials couldn't find the cub's mother after searching the area for a few days, and sent him to the Oakland Zoo, where staff members named him Briar because his spots resembled a blackberry briar bush. —Kyle Melnick The Washington Post, Arkansas Online, 15 Mar. 2026

Uni hasn’t even registered her presence in its purple briar. —Literary Hub, 23 Feb. 2026

The creek bottom was full of briars and willows, but there were very few large trees that could support a stand. —Bob McNally, Outdoor Life, 5 Nov. 2025

The durable, thick fabric can easily withstand heavy brush and briars. —Christopher Murray May Earn A Commission If You Buy Through Our Referral Links. This Content Was Created By A Team That Works Independently From The Fox Newsroom., FOXNews.com, 29 Aug. 2025

The overhead canopy of the dense forest had reduced the thick undergrowth of briars and brushes, allowing Dalene and me to stroll freely in whatever direction drew our attention. —Bob Robinson, arkansasonline.com, 19 Jan. 2025

Word History

Etymology

short for briar pipe, from briar "wood of the heath plant Erica arborea," borrowed (with conformation to briar entry 1) from French bruyère "the heath plant Erica arborea," going back to Old French bruiere, bruere "moorland covered with heath, the heath plant Erica arborea," going back to Vulgar Latin *brūcāria, from *brūcus "heath plant" (borrowed from Gaulish *wroikos) + Latin -āria -ary entry 1 — more at erica

Note: The meaning of the derivative *brūcāria must initially have been "place covered with *brūcus," but early on in Old French it was applied to the plant itself. The simplex *brūcus is attested as Old Occitan bruc, bru, breu, Catalan bruc, Upper Italian (Piedmont) brü, (Milan) brüg. A tenth-century botanical vocabulary (see Corpus glossariorum Latinorum vol. 3, p. 587) has the gloss brucus : ramnus [Greek rhámnos "thorny shrub"]. The treatment of the diphthong (*oi > *ū) in the passage from Celtic to Vulgar Latin is idiosyncratic; it seems unlikely to have any connection to the monophthongization of oe (> ū) in classical Latin.

First Known Use

1882, in the meaning defined above

Phrases Containing briar

• briar patch

Rhymes for briar

• acquire
• attire
• bonfire
• campfire
• ceasefire
• conspire
• desire
• enquire
• entire
• greenbrier
• gunfire
• homebuyer

Kids Definition

briar

1 of 2 noun

bri·​ar

variants or brier

ˈbrī(-ə)r

: a plant (as a rose) with a thorny or prickly usually woody stem

also : a mass or twig of these

briary adjective

briar

2 of 2 noun

variants or brier

: a pipe for smoking tobacco made from the root or stem of a European heath

Etymology

Old English brēr "thorny plant"

short for briar pipe, from briar "wood of the European heath," from French bruyère "heath"