What's the difference between thorn and torn?

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.

Torn


Definition:

  • (p. p.) of Tear
  • () p. p. of Tear.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) The logistics of maintaining and supplying underground clinics located in war-torn rural Afghanistan are presented.
  • (2) Never had I heard anything about what I saw documented so unsparingly in Evan’s photographs: families sleeping in the streets, their clothes in shreds, straw hats torn and unprotecting of the sun, guajiros looking for work on the doorsteps of Havana’s indifferent mansions.
  • (3) The shredded fibres were trimmed in most cases and this allowed better definition of the amount of ligament considered to be torn.
  • (4) This 90s pop confection had torn tights, a sulky attitude and high regard for Quentin Tarantino.
  • (5) Plibersek on Thursday ruled out supporting sending ground troops into Syria, after the government announced on Wednesday that it would extend airstrikes into the war-torn country .
  • (6) We hurtled into Barcelona at speeds that should have torn Eglantine's juddering Peugeot 205 apart.
  • (7) Some of these are functions that would once have been taken on through squatting – and sometimes still are, as at Open House , a social centre recently and precariously opened in London's Elephant & Castle, an area torn apart by rampant gentrification, where estates are flogged off to developers with zero commitment to public housing and the aforementioned "shopping village" is located in a derelict estate.
  • (8) The capsule is reattached to the boney rim of the anterioinferior glenoid deep to and lateral to the torn cartilagenous labrum, thus excluding the labrum from the joint anteriorly.
  • (9) Nine pedunculated benign synoviomata causing mechanical symptoms similar to those of a torn meniscus are described.
  • (10) The UNHCR estimates there are more than 60 million forcibly displaced people worldwide, with over 4 million Syrians alone leaving their war-torn country to seek safety in neighbouring countries and Europe.
  • (11) David Cameron has attacked Labour's "rank hypocrisy" in calling for him to boycott the Commonwealth summit in Sri Lanka as he claimed his visit to the country's war-torn north will help give a voice to the dispossessed.
  • (12) 'I am all the African chiefs who have sold their continent to the white men' … Samuel Fosso's self-portrait as an African chief The life work of one of Africa's most important living photographers and contemporary artists, Samuel Fosso , has been rescued from destruction after his studio and home were attacked by looters in war-torn Central African Republic .
  • (13) Arthroscopic operative procedures include the inspection of a torn glenoid labrum and certain lesions of the biceps tendon, viewing a torn rotator cuff, locating loose bodies in the shoulder, surgery for recurrent dislocations, and division of the coracoacromial ligament.
  • (14) Although not within the scope of this article, acute arthroscopic repair of a torn meniscus, evaluation of the degree of tear of the anterior cruciate ligament, and arthroscopic repair of osteochondral fractures are all benefited by acute arthroscopic examination.
  • (15) Jelacic's plans are to impact the tribunal's work in a country more torn than at any time during the war: "They involve entrenching the current outreach offices and moving the operation and the defence lines from The Hague to the Balkans: not just to Sarajevo, Zagreb, Belgrade and Pristina - but to the municipalities, the villages themselves.
  • (16) The quality of ultrasound image obtained from the patients in vivo proved similar to that obtained during the in vitro studies, and in addition six ulcerative lesions including two with torn intima were detected with transesophageal echocardiography.
  • (17) Those that do exist bear Saudi Arabia's logo, but they are torn and thin – leftovers from a huge aid donation during cyclone Nargis.
  • (18) In the marginal area, bone can be found lying open with torn remnants, which are lying free in the coagulum.
  • (19) The torn segment was mobile, the remainder of the meniscus stable.
  • (20) They also plan to disrupt the work of the crews by calling the Libyan coastguard and asking them to take migrants and refugees attempting to cross the Mediterranean back to war-torn Libya.

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