What's the difference between briar and thorn?

Briar


Definition:

  • (n.) Same as Brier.
  • (n.) A plant with a slender woody stem bearing stout prickles; especially, species of Rosa, Rubus, and Smilax.
  • (n.) Fig.: Anything sharp or unpleasant to the feelings.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) The conidial heads of the fungus have a characteristic briar-pipe appearance in culture.
  • (2) The unique morphological characteristic of the conidial head resembling a briar pipe led to the identification of A. deflectus.
  • (3) We have to stop at 9pm because of provincial regulations, so we’re pushing through until then.” Briar Stewart (@briarstewart) I am at far south end of city.
  • (4) "It is a whitewash by the World Wildlife Fund and the Mexican government," the leading monarch expert Lincoln Brower of Sweet Briar College in Virginia said.
  • (5) In the normal habitat of the armadillo in Louisiana there are thorny bushes consisting mostly of the green briar and the southern dewberry.
  • (6) The extracellular matrix undergoes three distinct changes at fertilization: a) formation of a "smooth" layer below the vitelline envelope (VE), b) transformation of the VE itself to an altered VE composed of concentric fibrous sheets, and c) formation of a dense, "briar-patch"-like fertilization layer at the upper surface of the VE.
  • (7) Deakin had a habit of driving his cars until they were about to give out, then backing them into a particularly deep area of hedge and abandoning them, to be grown through by the briars and nested in by birds.
  • (8) Prince Charming hacked his way through the briars to wake Sleeping Beauty.
  • (9) Charlie Briar, senior fellow, cardiac intensive care unit, Great Ormond Street hospital, London Junior doctors are not 18-year-olds fresh out of school Junior doctors are not 18-year-old apprentices fresh out of school.

Thorn


Definition:

  • (n.) A hard and sharp-pointed projection from a woody stem; usually, a branch so transformed; a spine.
  • (n.) Any shrub or small tree which bears thorns; especially, any species of the genus Crataegus, as the hawthorn, whitethorn, cockspur thorn.
  • (n.) Fig.: That which pricks or annoys as a thorn; anything troublesome; trouble; care.
  • (n.) The name of the Anglo-Saxon letter /, capital form /. 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.
  • (v. t.) To prick, as with a thorn.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) But the outspoken journalist and human rights activist has long been a thorn in Ali Abdullah Saleh's side, agitating for press freedoms and staging weekly sit-ins to demand the release of political prisoners from jail – a place she has been several times herself.
  • (2) Daballen navigates the jeep between thorn bushes and over furrows, guided by a rising moon and his intimate knowledge of the terrain.
  • (3) Adoption and fostering: ‘The best thing you have ever done’ Read more The process of adopting disabled children was much harder when she first did it in the 1980s, Thorn says, adding that people tended to be bemused as to why any parent would volunteer for the additional work involved in bringing up children with varying needs.
  • (4) Puncture wounds were cuased in 9 patients by sea urchin spines and 1 patient by a date palm thorn.
  • (5) Supporters said they were not surprised she had been let go as she had become “a thorn in the flesh” of the DfE after speaking out against government policies.
  • (6) The call by Denmark’s prime minister, Helle Thorning-Schmidt, for the country to stand together echoes the Norwegian response after the massacre at Utøya .
  • (7) Sperm motion was analysed using the Hamilton-Thorn system before and after incubation and treatment.
  • (8) Three cases are reported in which pseudotumours developed in the hand following injury by oil palm thorns.
  • (9) Since becoming Denmark's first female prime minister two years ago, Thorning-Schmidt has had to contend with the media nickname of "Gucci Helle", so called because of her fondness for designer clothes.
  • (10) Wyden and Udall have been thorns in the side of the intelligence community, using their position on the committee, which permits them privileged access to classified briefings, to repeatedly challenge senior officials on the accuracy of their public testimony.
  • (11) He said police reports in Sweden showed SW had told a friend, Marie Thorn, that she felt police and others around her "railroaded her" into pressing charges.
  • (12) Although reviewers' letters may be considered an unnecessary thorn in the side, the improved practice that has resulted from these efforts gives strong support to their continued activities.
  • (13) In layers V and VI they mainly contact with the dendrite trunks and with the nervous cell bodies and more rarely with thorns.
  • (14) They gradually displayed active membrane pseudopodia, thorn-like processes and petal-like ruffles after 2 h to 4 h of cultivation.
  • (15) Other names circulating in EU capitals for the top commission job include the Irish prime minister, Enda Kenny, the outgoing Finnish prime minister on the centre-right, Jyrki Katainen, and the Danish prime minister on the centre-left, Helle Thorning-Schmidt.
  • (16) Across this relatively peaceful corner of the Horn of Africa, where black-headed sheep scamper among the thorn bushes, dainty gerenuk balance on their hind legs to nibble from hardy shrubs, and skinny camels wearing rough-hewn bells lumber over rocky slopes, people long accustomed to a harsh environment find they cannot cope after years of below-average rainfall.
  • (17) Synovectomy and removal of the plant thorn usually results in normal joint function.
  • (18) But, as Aimee Thorne-Thomsen, the vice president for strategic partnerships at Advocates for Youth, wrote in 2010 , rather than focus on if abortion is rare enough to make enough people comfortable, "What if we stopped focusing on the number of abortions and instead focused on the women themselves?"
  • (19) One teacher, who was hiding in a closet in the math lab, heard Thorne yell, "Put the gun down!"
  • (20) Based on a correlative radiographic and histologic slab study of the wrists in 50 infants who died of unrelated diseases, the author's chief conclusions are as follow: 1) On the wrist radiograph of the infant, bone bark in the Ranvier's groove may appear as a "thorn-like" bony process on the margins of the metaphysis of the radius and ulna.

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