Thorny

//ˈθɔːni// adj

adj ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Having thorns or spines. literally

    "Tara flour is one of two products made from the seed pods of a thorny shrub native to Peru. One of those, tara gum, has been used safely for years as a thickening agent or stabilizer in human foods."

  2. 2
    Troublesome or vexatious. figuratively

    "thorny issues"

  3. 3
    Aloof and irritable. figuratively

    "Come, Jo, don't be thorny. After studying himself to a skeleton all the week, a fellow deserves petting, and ought to get it."

Adjective
  1. 1
    having or covered with protective barbs or quills or spines or thorns or setae etc. wordnet
  2. 2
    bristling with perplexities wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
barbellatedifficultpricklyabstruseacanaceousacanthoid

Example

More examples

"While Tom was picking blackberries, the thorny canes scratched his arms and legs several times. "Next time I do this," he told Mary, "I'll be sure to wear long sleeves so that I don't get so many little scratches.""

Etymology

From Middle English thorny, þorny, þorni, from Old English þorniġ, from Proto-West Germanic *þornag. By surface analysis, thorn + -y.

Related phrases

giant thorny-headed worm of swinethorny broomthorny devilthorny lacewingthorny oysterthorny restharrowthorny trefoilthorny worm

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.