3 definitions found
thorny - Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 :
Thorny \Thorn"y\, a. [Compar. Thornier; superl. Thorniest.]
[Cf. AS. [thorn]orniht.]
1. Full of thorns or spines; rough with thorns; spiny; as, a
thorny wood; a thorny tree; a thorny crown.
[1913 Webster]
2. Like a thorn or thorns; hence, figuratively, troublesome;
vexatious; harassing; perplexing. "The thorny point of
bare distress." --Shak.
[1913 Webster]
The steep and thorny way to heaven. --Shak.
[1913 Webster]
Thorny rest-harrow (Bot.), rest-harrow.
Thorny trefoil, a prickly plant of the genus Fagonia
(Fagonia Cretica, etc.).
[1913 Webster]
thorny - WordNet (r) 2.1 (2005) :
thorny
adj 1: bristling with perplexities; "the thorny question of
states' rights"
2: having or covered with protective barbs or quills or spines
or thorns or setae etc.; "a horse with a short bristly mane";
"bristly shrubs"; "burred fruits"; "setaceous whiskers" [syn:
barbed, barbellate, briary, briery, bristled,
bristly, burred, burry, prickly, setose,
setaceous, spiny, thorny]
thorny - Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 :
72 Moby Thesaurus words for "thorny":
Herculean, abstruse, acanaceous, acanthoid, aciculate, aculeolate,
arduous, barbed, barbellate, brambly, briery, bristly, brutal,
complex, complicated, controversial, critical, delicate, demanding,
difficile, difficult, exacting, formidable, hairy, hard,
hard-earned, hard-fought, intricate, involved, jawbreaking,
knotted, knotty, laborious, mean, muricate, nasty, nettlesome,
no picnic, not easy, operose, painful, pricking, prickly, pricky,
problematic, rigorous, rough, rugged, set with thorns, setaceous,
setose, severe, spiculate, spiculose, spiked, spinous, spiny,
steep, sticky, stinging, strenuous, tangled, thistly, ticklish,
toilsome, tough, tricky, troublesome, uphill, vexatious, wicked,
worrying
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